Arms Control Wonk

In its present state of economic weakness, North Korea is very easy to underestimate. But just because its regime is unspeakable, its people are malnourished, and its electrical grid barely operates, that doesn’t mean that North Korea lacks for skilled personnel who care about their work—perhaps including the negotiators who managed to get Bill Clinton …

click on the image for a larger version Iraqi destructive quality control test on jet vanes using two different imported batches of graphite. See UNMOVIC’s Compendium, Chapter IV, pp. 739-740. As any regular read of my posts on ACW will know, I have a love/hate relationship with jet vanes. That is partly why I was …

From KCNA: Bill Clinton Arrives Here Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) — Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and his party arrived here Tuesday by air. They were greeted by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. A little girl presented …

If the paucity of North Korean Nodong MRBM tests prior to deployment doesn’t mean that it’s secretly an old Soviet weapon not seen previously, what does it mean? There are other explanations for a limited testing regime that don’t seem like quite so much of a reach. First, let’s consider that the North Koreans had …