Robin Wright at the Washington Post and David Sanger at the New York Times are reporting that CIA Director Michael Hayden and other intelligence officials will brief the House and Senate Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees on the Box-on-the-Eurphrates. The centerpiece of the briefing is a video [presentation showing two still photographs of] …
Fuel Assurance: Past as Prelude?
by | 2008-04-22 | 8 Comments
I just returned from an informative lunch at the Council on Foreign Relations featuring Ambassador Tetsuya Endo, who chaired a recent Japanese government task force on nuclear energy. Fuel assurance was a prominent theme in the not-for-attribution discussion, and I was surprised to hear several prominent American nonproliferation experts assert that there never has been, …
Hecker on Disablement
by | 2008-04-22 | 5 Comments
Wow, somehow I totally missed that Sig Hecker published the North Korean disablement steps in his last trip report from North Korea : The following constitute the 12 disablement actions as defined by Yongbyon officials: Fuel Fabrication Facility 1) Removal and storage of all three uranium ore concentrate dissolver tanks. 2) Removal and storage of …
Three Scenarios for the NORKs
by | 2008-04-22 | 8 Comments
The last week or so has seen an interesting development with regard to North Korea (even if the image above is rather retro now). As part of the Valentine’s eve agreement, North Korea is required to declare all its nuclear activities. The US has previously insisted that the North Koreans must confess to three programmes: …
