Many of you know there is a slew of bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreements (“123”) that need to be renewed, and among them is one with South Korea. I recently wrote an op-ed in The Hill arguing that the North Korean nuclear issue is irrelevant to 123 discussions and point out the real dilemmas US policymakers are faced with when negotiating all civil nuclear cooperation agreements hereafter.
North Korean Couple… Pregnant?
Ah, here we go again. The North Korean couple has returned to the public eye — Kim Jong-un after a 15-day absence and his wife Ri Sol-ju after over 50 days of silence. And with it comes a host of speculation: the general view seems to be that Kim Jong-un needs to show the public that his regime is stable.
Quote of the Day: WTF Edition
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the North Korean leader-du-jour threaten others with nuclear annihilation, implied or otherwise. Who knows what level of self-destruction they would risk for their cause? Our weakness and neglect of the U.S. nu…
The Implications of New Leadership in North Korea
North Korea has experienced extreme isolation from the world since Kim Il-Sung proclaimed himself as the Prime Minister in 1948, the same year South Korea declared statehood. Labeled by the international community as a totalitarian regime that oppresses its citizens, North Korea has long flouted international rules and norms, including human rights and nonproliferation under the Kim Jong-Il regime, the son of Kim Il-sung. But when Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011, his twenty-something son, Kim Jong-Un, took the reins. Since then, North Korea watchers have pointed to interesting changes in the country, though the significance and implications of these changes are difficult to discern.
Prague, Revisited
Written by: Kingston Reif Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on September 17, 2012 Article summary below; read the full text online. Few national security issues are as important to President Barack Obama as reducing the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Obama devoted his first major foreign policy speech as president to the […]
