North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (center), President of the Supreme People’s Assembly Kim Yong Nam (left) and North Korean people’s Army political director Jo Myong Rok (right) attend the opening session of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly last month. Pyongyang announced today it has removed plutonium-bearing spent fuel its Yongbyon reactor (AFP photo/KCNA). North Korea Completes Spent Reactor Fuel Removal North Korea has “successfully completed” the removal of 8,000 spent fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced today (see GSN, May 10). “We are continuing to take necessary measures to increase (our) nuclear arsenal for self-defense purposes,” a spokesman said...Full Story

Weldon Urges Bush Administration to Back Off North Korea Rhetoric, Hold Direct Talks By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A negotiated deal to eliminate suspected North Korean nuclear weapons capabilities is still possible, but Bush administration officials must end rhetoric that antagonizes Pyongyang and pursue direct negotiations, a prominent Republican U.S. lawmaker said here today (see GSN, Jan. 27)...Full Story

EU Could Call IAEA Crisis Meeting on Iran The European Union plans to call a crisis meeting of the International Atomic Energy Board of Governors next week if Iran resumes uranium enrichment-related activities, the Financial Times reported yesterday (see GSN, May 10)...Full Story

	Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Ridge Overruled by White House on Terror Alerts Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the White House often overruled him on whether a threat warranted raising the terror alert level, USA Today reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 12). “More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it,” Ridge said. “Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country on (alert). … There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it and we said, ‘For that?’” New Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is reviewing the color-coded system, USA Today reported. A department spokesman says changes might be made to the system in coming months (Mimi Hall, USA Today, May 10). Back to top

Democrats Will Not Delay Bolton Vote Senate Democrats do not plan to block a committee vote set for tomorrow on John Bolton’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, May 10). “We’re not going to seek any delay,” said ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat Joseph Biden (Del.). Biden said Democrats would allow the vote despite their belief that the White House has failed to offer full cooperation in their investigation of Bolton’s conduct as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. A spokesman for committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) praised the decision, and said Lugar believed Bolton would be approved by the committee (Mary Curtius, Los Angeles Times, May 11). At least one committee Republican who had expressed concerns about Bolton appeared yesterday to be lining up behind the appointment. “I won’t deny a lot of the information certainly brings great pause, but I fight the administration on so many issues; this is one that I’ve been with them on — to appoint their team,” said Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.). Other GOP lawmakers held off on saying which way they plan to vote. “I’m doing the best I can to get the best information I possibly can so I can make a good decision,” said Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio). Fellow committee Republican Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) said she wants to meet with Bolton before casting her vote. “I have more than adequate information but I do want to sit down with Mr. Bolton again,” Murkowski said (Ann Gearan, Associated Press, May 11). Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said he expects Bolton to move on to a full Senate vote. “I have reserved my vote until I hear all the facts, but I’ve seen nothing new or heard nothing new that will lead me to believe he will not be voted out with an affirmative vote,” Hagel said (Stephanie Griffith, Associated Press, May 11).    The looming vote has not stopped inquiries on Bolton. Senate intelligence committee leaders yesterday met with former National Security Agency chief Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden to discuss Bolton’s requests for transcripts of conversations intercepted by the agency, the Los Angeles Times reported (Curtius, Los Angeles Times). Meanwhile, declassified e-mails also show that a high-ranking Bolton aide warned of a minimized role for the intelligence arm of the State Department because of a disagreement over China’s missile exports, according to Reuters. At issue are U.S. efforts to persuade China to limit trade in missiles and unconventional weaponry. A 2002 State Department intelligence and research bureau (INR) rebuttal memo found flaws and mistakes in a CIA analysis of the Chinese policy. Fred Fleitz, Bolton’s chief of staff, in an e-mail to the bureau’s then-second in command, Thomas Fingar, called the rebuttal memo “a serious abuse of INR’s liaison role.” “Actions of this type cannot help but undermine the bond of trust between (Bolton’s office) and INR,” Fleitz wrote. “If (Bolton’s office) cannot trust INR to follow established dissemination procedures, we may have to look for an alternate agreement to send and relay material, such as working with” the diplomatic security bureau at the State Department (Reuters, May 10). Back to top

North Korea Completes Spent Reactor Fuel Removal North Korea has “successfully completed” the removal of 8,000 spent fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced today (see GSN, May 10). “We are continuing to take necessary measures to increase (our) nuclear arsenal for self-defense purposes,” a spokesman said. The spent fuel contains enough plutonium to make five to eight nuclear weapons, according to experts (Burt Herman, Associated Press/Sacramento Union, May 11). Meanwhile, the Bush administration has requested that Beijing intensify efforts aimed at persuading North Korea to resume six-party negotiations on its nuclear program, AP reported (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 11). China warned yesterday against placing sanctions on North Korea if it does not return to the talks, the Financial Times reported. Beijing is “not in favor of exerting pressure or imposing sanctions” on North Korea,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. “We believe that such measures are not necessarily effective” (Fifield/McGregor, Financial Times, May 11). Talks earlier this week in Moscow between leaders of China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States could help Beijing persuade Pyongyang to resume negotiations, a South Korean official told Reuters today. “We all know we are approaching very soon the one-year anniversary of the absence of talks, and this cannot go on forever,” said the official. “So I think those meetings helped China and other countries to strongly convince North Korea to come back to the talks” (Martin Nesirky, Reuters, May 11). Back to top       Weldon Urges Bush Administration to Back Off North Korea Rhetoric, Hold Direct Talks By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A negotiated deal to eliminate suspected North Korean nuclear weapons capabilities is still possible, but Bush administration officials must end rhetoric that antagonizes Pyongyang and pursue direct negotiations, a prominent Republican U.S. lawmaker said here today (see GSN, Jan. 27). “I can’t for the life of me understand why we can’t sit down and have a face-to-face dialogue with them,” said Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the second-most senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, speaking at a National Defense University Foundation event. Weldon said he found North Korean officials eager to negotiate during his trips in recent years with fellow committee members to the isolated, economically starved country. However, statements by President George W. Bush, then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other senior officials have undermined efforts to negotiate an agreement in which North Korea would verifiably eliminate its nuclear weapons capabilities in exchange for trade, investment, and a U.S. security guarantee, he suggested, without naming Bush directly. Negotiating a deal is “not possible, as long as we spew out rhetoric,” Weldon said.  “Now we’re all human beings. We may totally despise [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Il. We may loathe him.  But the fact is if you truly want to end their nuclear capability, then you can’t casually refer to him as a pigmy and you can’t casually refer to the country as an ‘axis of evil,’” he said, in apparent reference respectively to a reported comment by Bush in May 2002 and a phrase from his State of the Union address that year. Weldon also cited Rice’s description of North Korea at her confirmation hearings this year as secretary of state this year as an “outpost of tyranny.” He said he did not find Rice’s comment “all that offensive, but the North Koreans did,” and said it prompted Pyongyang to cancel six-country discussions. “We don’t have to pound our chest and talk about how mighty we are, and how bad they are. We all know that.  Who are we trying to impress?” he said. Weldon said it is important not to cause the other party in a negotiation to lose face. “You may despise someone, but you don’t have to ridicule them personally if you expect to be able to accomplish an objective.” In the end, though, the real blame for the failure to reach a negotiated agreement ultimately rests with North Korea, Weldon said. In addition to its nuclear weapons program, he noted North Korea’s 1998 launch of a ballistic missile over Japanese territory, and reported sponsorship of terrorism and illegal drug sales, persecution of its citizens, and threats against countries. War Would be ‘Ugly’ Weldon said a peaceful solution to ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons capabilities is preferable to war. A war with North Korea would be “extremely ugly, probably the ugliest war since World War II. We’d win … but not without massive loss of life,” he said. “The North Korean army is not Saddam’s Revolutionary Guard,” Weldon said, referring to the former Iraq president. “Kim Jong Il has a million-man army, third largest in the world, it’s well equipped,” he said. He cited Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, medium- and long-range missiles, and “a couple of thousand missile launchers aimed at Seoul.” “I’m not saying there’s not a time we’d have to face down the North Koreans [in a military conflict], but we’re not there yet,” he said. “We’ve got 37,000 troops and their families there and we would have a war that would be devastating,” he also said. “If there’s a way to achieve peace without war, then I’m going to do that,” he said. Weldon said that the United States should continue to study a controversial, improved earth-penetrating nuclear weapon and should develop ballistic missile defenses, which he said could provide the United States with a stronger negotiating position regarding North Korea as well as additional military capabilities. ‘Face-to-Face’ Negotiations Needed While North Korea has sought one-on-one negotiations with the United States, the Bush administration has insisted upon multilateral “six-party talks,” which also include South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. Weldon questioned whether the United States can “fully rely on China” to help persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, saying Beijing might view the North Korean issue as leverage against the United States for pursuing its goal of unifying with Taiwan. “We eventually have to sit down and talk face to face with Kim Jong Il and his team,” he said. He said the administration’s new assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Christopher Hill, should be given “the flexibility to negotiate as a professional. We should tell him what the end result is that we want.  And say, ‘Anyway you can get there is acceptable to us but that is what we cannot live without.’” Back to top       EU Could Call IAEA Crisis Meeting on Iran The European Union plans to call a crisis meeting of the International Atomic Energy Board of Governors next week if Iran resumes uranium enrichment-related activities, the Financial Times reported yesterday (see GSN, May 10). The board could discuss referring the nuclear dispute to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, according to diplomats in Vienna. A senior Iranian diplomat, however, warned that if European negotiating partners France, Germany and the United Kingdom supported taking the case to the Security Council, Iran would resume “activities” at Natanz, where it building a uranium enrichment facility. Tehran is “fully aware of the implications of breaking the suspension” of nuclear work, said a European diplomat in Tehran (Bozorgmehr/Khalaf/Smyth, Financial Times, May 10). Iran appears set on ending the suspension, Agence France-Presse reported today. “There is no legal basis for sending Iran’s nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, and this is nothing but media propaganda,” Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said today. “Since the suspension was voluntary and aimed at trust building... there is no reason to continue the suspension,” Aghazadeh said. “The Europeans should know that ending the suspension does not require the permission of any person or international body.” “One of the conditions for continuing the talks was to see progress. We were not successful,” he said. Aghazadeh added that Iran had been granting “one-sided concessions to the Europeans” since talks commenced in December (Farhad Pouladi, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 11). Aghazadeh said Iranian nuclear scientists would resume work the day after officials announce a decision. Such a decision could be made today, the Associated Press reported. France yesterday urged Iran not to resume the work. “We hope Iran will stay within the bounds of the November 2004 accord that calls for a suspension of activities linked to enrichment, reprocessing, plus conversion,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei (Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press/San Diego Union-Tribune, May 10). The International Atomic Energy Agency fears that Iran will almost certainly resume sensitive nuclear activity, diplomats in Vienna said yesterday. “This is inevitable,” said one diplomat. “The indications are that this is going to happen very, very soon if not this week,” he said. “If this (resumption) is the case, the Iranians will send IAEA a letter saying ‘we are planning to do A, B and C, we are going to cut the seals,’” said another diplomat. “Then the agency will send inspectors to actually independently verify that they are doing what they said they want to do. Then [agency Director General Mohamed] ElBaradei would write a letter to the members of the [IAEA] board. ... They, in particular the EU, would decide what the next step is, they could call for an immediate board of governors (meeting) and press for a reference to the Security Council,” the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse, May 10). European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday that he favors referring Iran’s nuclear file to the International Atomic Energy Agency if talks break down, AFP reported. Asked whether referral to the U.N. Security Council was an option, Solana replied, “In this case, I think that the file would go first to Vienna,” referring to the agency’s headquarters (Agence France-Presse/Al Jazeera, May 10). Back to top       Still No Agenda Set for NPT Conference Delegates to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference have been unable to settle on an agenda after a full week of discussions, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, May 10). The most recent disagreements involve proposals by Nonaligned Movement countries that secondary bodies be created to a consider a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East and other issues, delegates participating in the talks told AP. The conference is expected to weigh proposals for creating more international control over nuclear fuel production, as well as promoting the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to AP (Associated Press/Scotsman.com, May 10). Back to top       MOX Fuel Testing to Begin in South Carolina A nuclear power plant in South Carolina is scheduled to load experimental mixed-oxide fuel into a reactor within the next month, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 13). A spokesman for the Catawba Nuclear Station would not say when the fuel would be installed. The facility shut down Friday for an expected maintenance and refueling period of four weeks. The MOX fuel was produced through conversion of weapon-grade plutonium, part of a program in which the United States and Russia each agreed to eliminate 34 tons of the nuclear material. If the fuel successfully helps power the station during the trial run, a full MOX program could be started at several Duke Power plants, according to AP (Associated Press/Myrtle Beach Online, May 11). Back to top

Boston University Fined for Tularemia Incidents Boston University committed serious safety violations last year at a laboratory in which three workers were exposed to tularemia bacteria, the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Monday (see GSN, March 30). The agency fined the university and Boston Medical Center $8,100, the Boston Globe reported. Federal investigators concluded that researchers working with tularemia bacterium regularly did not wear gloves and eye protection. Their report also verified earlier allegations of poor safety habits at the laboratory and found that mandatory warnings about tularemia had not been put in writing. “Employers who hire researchers to work with potentially infectious biological materials have a significant duty under the law to make every effort to ensure that their employees are protected at all times from exposure to such materials,” Brenda Gordon, director the agency’s Boston branch, said in a statement. University administrators said in a statement yesterday that they agreed with some aspects of the OSHA review, according to the Globe. University officials plan to discuss their objections to the report in a meeting with OSHA officials, said university spokeswoman Ellen Berlin (Stephen Smith, Boston Globe, May 10). Back to top       Alabama Postal Sites to Receive Anthrax Detectors Anthrax detection equipment is scheduled to be installed in four Alabama postal facilities by 2006, The Birmingham News reported today (see GSN, March 29). The equipment has been in place for a month at the post office in Birmingham, and similar technology is being placed at a Mobile postal site. The detection system is expected to be added next year to U.S. Postal Service facilities in Huntsville and Montgomery, the News reported. Installation of the systems is part of a nationwide effort to protect the public and postal employees from bioterrorism (Walter Bryant, The Birmingham News, May 11). Back to top       Researchers Prepare Bioagent Detection System Researchers at Iowa State University hope to have ready in a few years technology that can detect biological agents in drinking and coastal waters, the university announced today (see GSN, April 5). Scientists at the university’s Institute for Combinatorial Discovery and Concurrent Analysis Inc. in Hawaii have developed a method to detect individual spores or cells by shining a laser beam on a material and using a spectrometer to look for molecular indicators of a biological agent. “We’ve proven our ability to test for these nasties,” said Chris Schoen, president of Concurrent Analysis. Researchers hope to use this technology to test water supplies for bioterror contamination, but caution the tests will not be ready for a few years (Iowa State University release, May 11). Back to top

Senate Locks in Money for Blue Grass, Pueblo Funding guarantees for developing chemical weapons disposal facilities in Kentucky and Colorado are included in a spending measure passed yesterday by the U.S. Senate, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 2). The spending package bars the Defense Department from reallocating $813.4 million designated for the planned weapons neutralization sites at Pueblo, Colo., and Blue Grass, Ky. It also requires the Defense Department to spend at least $100 million at the facilities within four months of the law taking effect. Under the proposal, the Pentagon would have to provide spending reports to Congress every two months and cannot explore options for transporting nerve agents from the facilities (Associated Press, May 10). House lawmakers are also requesting information on possible impacts on Blue Grass and Pueblo from the planned transfer of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program from the Office of the Defense Secretary to the Army Chemical Materials Agency. The alternatives program was established to develop and use options other than eliminating weapons stored at the two sites. Representatives Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) and John Salazar (D-Colo.) have concerns over budgetary issues, management structure, impact on site schedules and Chemical Materials Agency authority (Chemical Weapons Working Group release, May 10). Meanwhile, sarin nerve agent was found leaking from a munition stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, the Associated Press reported Army officials called the leak “routine” and said it posed no public danger. Depot spokesman Richard Sloan said a small amount of sarin was detected Tuesday inside a storage igloo. Contaminated air was being removed by a filtering machine. This was the first sarin leak at the facility since 2000, and the first chemical weapon leak since 2003 (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 11). Back to top       Chemical Agent Container Found in Suburban England Workers on a housing development site in Bristol, England have stumbled upon a canister of World War I-era chemical agent, the Bristol Evening Post reported yesterday (see GSN, April 14). A team of chemical experts dressed in protective clothing removed the container on Monday, according to the Post. Up to 350 homes are expected to be built on the 34-acre site, formerly owned by Bristol University and used as a horticultural and agricultural research center. There was no danger to the community, said Philip Court, land and planning director for developer George Wimpey. “In doing what we did we followed best health and safety practice. It might look over the top but it was to protect the residents and our staff,” Court said. “We don’t believe there are other cylinders but if there are they will be removed in the same way,” he said (Bob Beale, Bristol Evening Post, May 10).   Back to top

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