The Yinhe Incident
I am off tomorrow for a conference in South Korea organized by the Korean National Defence University. I hope to keep posting while I’m there. In the meantime here is some Friday afternoon reading for you. On Monday I commented…
October 2008
25 posts
Gormley on PRTBs
I meant to add that Richard Clarke’s most recent book, Your Government Failed You has a fantastic account about tracking Russian nuclear weapons deployments. The story, which involves the great Dennis Gormley, centers on Soviet units called “Mobile Technical Rocket…
China Pakistan Nuclear Deal
Surprise, surprise. China has announced its intention to sell more nuclear power plants to Pakistan. Kyodo News reports: China has agreed to supply Pakistan with two additional nuclear power plants, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said here Saturday after…
Senator Kyl’s Straw Men
Congress has mandated that the next administration complete a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) by early 2010. Senators McCain and Obama have both indicated support for nuclear reductions consistent with sustaining deterrence, and there is growing bipartisan support for a serious…
Greetings from Shanghai
I am in Shanghai, attending the Stanley Foundation’s US-China Regional Dialogue on Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation here at Fudan University. This is part of a two-week tour of China that will include Beijing and Qingdao. I should be able to…
Be Careful What You Wish For
By all accounts, the US has succeeded in getting North Korea to agree to inspections at undeclared facilities as part of the verification process—another impressive diplomatic victory for Chris Hill. There’s little prospect the US will try to use this…
DF-21 Delta aka CSS-5 Mod 4
I am fascinated by China’s development of conventionally-armed ballistic missiles, particularly the development of a conventionally-armed DF-21 variant, the DF-21C (pictured above, it seems). I recently read an article in Defense News by Wendell Minnick on conventionally-armed DF-21s and the…
B61 Mod 12 LEP
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Elaine Grossman had an excellent story on the B61 Mod 12 LEP. Elaine reported that NNSA was considering either increasing the size of the B61 or reducing the explosive yield to create…
NORKs Delisted
The Bush Administration has removed North Korea from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror, following precisely the provisional delisting scenario I outlined on the blog a couple of weeks ago. I must say, I am rather proud…
Merlin Redux?
Elaine Sciolino in the New York Times cites “European and American officials” as stating the IAEA has in its possession an Iranian document that describes assistance by a Russian scientist in developing a detonation system for a nuclear weapon design:…