Avatar photoRoundtable & Happy Hour on Wed. 1/9

Another picture of China’s new SSBN, this one said to be at Sanya, Hainan Island. I am psyched! My Nuclear Strategy Initiative is hosting an open-to-the-public roundtable on China’s Boomers: Implications if China’s Deterrent Goes to Sea here at the New America Foundation on Wednesday (January 9 @ 12:15). We have a great line-up of …

Avatar photoNorks on Disablement

North Korea has issued a statement on why it slowed disablement and the hangup with the declaration. The explanation for the slowdown — North Korea is slowing the unloading of fuel rods from Yongbyon, presumably to take the entire 100 days — is technically plausible and exactly what I surmised last week. It is not …

Avatar photoNORKs Miss Deadline, Slow Disablement

As expected, North Korea missed the deadline for “providing a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear programs.” I say “as expected” in part because this is what Chris Hill told Congress in a closed briefing, according to Chris Nelson, and what South Korea’s Foreign Minister has said publicly. At issue, as we have long …

Avatar photoSpy Story Pure Crap

Hey, remember that front page Washington Times story by Bill Gertz reporting that “China’s intelligence service gained access to a secret National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii through a Chinese-language translation service”? Well, according to Chris Nelson, DoD officials who have read the investigation documents are calling the story “patently false” and “pure crap.” …