It’s a red-letter day for Norkologists. For one thing, Kim Jong-il’s in Beijing, taking what’s almost certainly his last train trip outside the country. According to the LA Times, he’s dispensed with the usual pair of decoy trains. Perhaps he’s now close enough to the end of the ol’ personal rail spur that he’s no …
Grading the NPR: New Warheads
by | 2010-05-05 | 6 Comments
The United States will not develop new nuclear warheads or pursue new military missions or new capabilities for nuclear weapons. Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of Nuclear Posture Review, April 06, 2010 I gather that the President is hoping this will be a big applause line in his speeches. Imagine how much …
Stockpile Numbers
by | 2010-05-03 | 7 Comments
5,113. That’s the number of active nuclear weapons in the US stockpile as of Sept. 30, 2009. The Defense Department has released aggregate stockpile numbers for 1962-2009, as well as annual warhead dismantlements from 1994-2009 in a fact sheet entitled, Increasing Transparency in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Stockpile. The fact sheet does not enumerate the …
38 North: Master Proliferator or Front Co?
by | 2010-05-03 | 2 Comments
Is North Korea a “master proliferator,” providing complete production facilities and extensive know-how for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems to rogue regimes? Or is it a simple front company for passing along other country’s discarded, obsolete technology? If the latter is true, we might still have a few years left in …
