South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon (right) talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan (left) today in Beijing during a break in negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program (Getty Images/Guang Niu). North Korea Turns Down U.S. Nuclear Proposal The North Korean delegation to six-nation talks in Beijing yesterday officially rejected the 2004 U.S. proposal aimed at ending the nuclear standoff, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, July 27). “The D.P.R.K. is a country that prides itself on being different, and this is certainly proving true in these negotiations,” said a senior U.S. official. The June 2004 proposal offered aid and security guarantees in exchange for full dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program, according to the Post...Full Story

U.S. Overcommitted on Missile Defense, Expert Says By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is funding the development and production of too many major systems, and would need to spend twice its projected annual budget to be able to afford it all, a defense expert said here yesterday (see GSN, June 10)...Full Story

Radiological Weapons Still Under the Radar, According to Those Working on Threat By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The potential for a radiological attack on the United States continues to receive less attention in Washington than nuclear, biological and chemical threats, despite a widely held view that a radiological attack is more likely than the others, officials and experts said here yesterday (see GSN, July 11)...Full Story

	Thursday, July 28, 2005

North Korea Turns Down U.S. Nuclear Proposal The North Korean delegation to six-nation talks in Beijing yesterday officially rejected the 2004 U.S. proposal aimed at ending the nuclear standoff, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, July 27). “The D.P.R.K. is a country that prides itself on being different, and this is certainly proving true in these negotiations,” said a senior U.S. official. The June 2004 proposal offered aid and security guarantees in exchange for full dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program, according to the Post. The North Korean delegation objected to the proposal on the grounds that it was front-loaded with demands on Pyongyang, while any benefits would only accrue afterward, the U.S. official said. Negotiators from the six nations have thus far in talks mainly laid out their positions, the official said. The primary goal of the negotiations is to create a list of “agreed principles” that can be expanded later, he said. “Our concern in putting together this basket of principles is that the basket can be turned into an agreement,” he said. More complex issues, such as the sequencing of obligations and Pyongyang’s alleged uranium enrichment program, would be put off for later discussion, according to the Post (Edward Cody, Washington Post, July 28). The United States proposed in bilateral discussions with North Korean delegates today that inspections of Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities be conducted in September, Interfax reported. “The U.S. delegation has proposed reaching an agreement at the fourth round (of six-party talks) to conduct an international inspection of the North Korean nuclear facilities in September 2005,” a source was quoted as saying. “(They would) subsequently draft a plan of measures to attain the main target of the six-party negotiating process — to free the peninsula of nuclear weapons,” the source said. The U.S. Embassy could not confirm the report, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 28). U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill also refused to confirm the Interfax report. “I have absolutely no idea,” Hill said when asked about its accuracy. The U.S. and North Korean delegations agreed today to continue bilateral negotiating sessions, Reuters reported. A third meeting was held today. “They agreed to continue holding consultations,” said Qin Gang, spokesman for the Chinese delegation (Lim/Beck, Reuters, July 28). The decision to hold one-on-one talks with North Korea is a significant shift in U.S. policy since the last round of negotiations, the Washington Post reported. “Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice has implemented a subtle but important shift in U.S. policy,” said Joseph Cirincione, director of nonproliferation policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Clearly, we are now in a period of give-and-take and genuine negotiations.” For example, Hill brokered a deal for the resumption of talks during a private three-hour dinner this month in Beijing with his North Korean counterpart, according to the Post, and has held several bilateral meetings with North Korean negotiators since then. The Bush administration, however, has rejected talk of a policy change. “This was not a negotiating session,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, referring to Monday’s breakout session between the North Korean and U.S. delegations at the talks. “We have in the past met with the North Koreans in the context of the six-party talks.” Experts said, however, that the administration’s approach is drastically different from that practiced in the first term. “If any of this had taken place under Bush I, people would have been lined up and shot,” said Charles Pritchard, who served as senior U.S. specialist for North Korean talks until resigning in August 2003. Undersecretary of State James Kelly, the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea during the first Bush term, had a delegation that included officials from other U.S. agencies who were dubious of the negotiations and was hampered by administration insistence that he call Washington repeatedly for instructions, the Post reported. “We were looking, at least to my mind, like something out of the old Soviet days, where there were watchers watching the watchers who were watching the principals,” former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told CNN this week (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, July 28). All parties today focused on creating the list of agreed principles, according to Reuters. “When we start drafting, we want to make sure that the drafting becomes the easy part and that there is already a consensus on how to proceed,” Hill said (Reuters, July 28). Pyongyang, meanwhile, has reportedly informed China that its announcement in February that it has nuclear bombs meant it had mastered technology for a nuclear detonator, a diplomatic source close to the talks told Interfax. In addition, North Korea said it has thus far avoided building up a nuclear arsenal, but that it would begin do so if the standoff with the United States was not resolved to its liking, according to the source (Stephanie Hoo, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 28). Washington yesterday said it remained convinced North Korea is pursuing a uranium enrichment program, AFP reported. “We’ve talked about this issue in the past in public, and our view is that North Korea would need to give up all of its nuclear programs. That would include plutonium, as well as highly enriched uranium. That still stands,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 27). Elsewhere, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and met today with his North Korean counterpart, Paek Nam Sun, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos, Reuters reported. It was the third ever meeting between the two men. “We are trying to make real progress in the six-party talks,” Paek said. Seoul was also awaiting a response on its energy aid offer to Pyongyang, Ban said yesterday (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, July 28). Back to top       EU Set to Offer Fuel, Economic Support to Iran The European Union’s nuclear proposal to Iran is set to include a guaranteed fuel supply for civilian reactors and expanded economic cooperation in exchange for an end to Tehran’s attempts to master the nuclear fuel cycle, USA Today reported today (see GSN, July 27). The offer is expected to be made next week. It will have three main components, according to two EU officials: guaranteed fuel at market prices for any civilian power plant Tehran builds; expanded economic cooperation, possibly including civilian nuclear technology and aircraft; and guaranteed participation for Iran in regional and international security discussions. The Bush administration has been briefed on the proposal, said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns. He added that Washington continues to support the EU diplomatic effort but wants Iran to eliminate its nuclear fuel cycle work, a condition not yet put forward by the European negotiators (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, July 28). Back to top       Australia, Indonesia Push for Revival of U.N. Nuclear Nonproliferation Talks in September A proposal to resume U.N. nonproliferation talks in September following the failure of May’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference was heralded today by two of the seven countries that put forward the initiative, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 27). “We hope that our initiative will stimulate a strong outcome on nuclear nonproliferation at the U.N. summit,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a written statement. “In the final analysis, to be credible this initiative requires a balance ... not just of nonproliferation but also of nuclear disarmament,” said Marty Natalegawa, spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry. Chile, Norway, Romania, South Africa and the United Kingdom yesterday joined Australia and Indonesia in calling for discussion of various nonproliferation measures, including a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. The U.N. General Assembly 2005 World Summit is scheduled from Sept. 14 to 16 (Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press, July 28). Back to top       New Zealand Maintains Prohibition on Port Calls by Nuclear-Powered Foreign Warships The New Zealand parliament yesterday voted to maintain the country’s ban on stopovers by nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from other nations, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 22). A representative of a small right-wing party proposed a referendum on lifting the ban, arguing that it had cost Wellington a free trade agreement with the United States. All the other parties represented in parliament, however, yesterday voted down the bill, AFP reported (Agence France-Presse, July 28). Back to top       Los Alamos Worker Contaminated with Radiation A Los Alamos National Laboratory investigation has confirmed radiation contamination in an employee’s workspace and on his clothing, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 12, 2003). Trace amounts of americium 241, which is created when plutonium atoms absorb neutrons during a nuclear reaction, were also found in the worker’s car and home, according to AP. Investigators at the New Mexico facility are working to determine the source of the contamination and if safety procedures were followed. “Our first concern is to ensure that every employee is safe and that the general public is protected,” said laboratory director Robert Kuckuck. “We believe that this has been accomplished.” Additional tests are being conducted to determine the amount of americium in the worker’s body. Five other Los Alamos employees are also being tested, AP reported. The amount of americium that left the laboratory is a fraction of the radiation found in a smoke detector, experts said. Levels at the workers home do not pose safety risks, they added (Associated Press/Albuquerque Journal, July 27). Back to top

Maine, Idaho Postal Sites Get Anthrax Detectors U.S. Postal Service mail processing facilities in Portland, Maine, and Boise, Idaho, are receiving systems capable of detecting anthrax, according to local television news reports yesterday (see GSN, July 26). The Maine facility began using the Biohazard Detection System last week, WMTW reported (Doug Cook, WMTW, July 27). The system is Idaho is scheduled to be installed Saturday, KTVB reported (John O’Sullivan, KTVB, July 27). Back to top

Pine Bluff Workers Fired for Security Violations The contractor at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas stopped work this month to investigate several workers’ improper use of security badges to access off-limit sections of the chemical weapons destruction facility, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported yesterday (see GSN, July 25). The work stoppage occurred during a two-week break in chemical weapons disposal for routine maintenance and training, according to the Commercial. David Reber, project manager for facility contractor Washington Group International, told the arsenal’s Citizens Advisory Commission on Tuesday that five employees exchanged badges in May to enter areas to which they did not have access. The exchanges were made in order “to accomplish some work at the facility,” Reber said. “However, it is a clear violation of the process,” he said. “This is serious enough that we don’t tolerate that behavior … so not all of the employees will be returning with us,” Reber said. “For the majority of people out there who are left this is a wake-up call,” said munitions handler Roger Rheaume. “We follow our rules.” Meanwhile, Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility project manager Randy Long said chemical weapons disposal resumed Tuesday with destruction of a sarin-filled rocket, the Commercial reported. Long said “final preventative maintenance activities” were being performed. “Since we had an outage of this duration, we actually will go through a slow and deliberate restart again.”  To date, 13,330 rockets containing 120,000 pounds of sarin nerve agent have been destroyed, according to the Commercial (Amy Riggin/Pine Bluff Commercial, July 27). Back to top       Russia to Focus on Weapons Destruction Progress at Chemical Disarmament Commission Meeting The Russian State Commission on Chemical Disarmament is focusing on 2005 weapons disposal results and the second stage of disarmament efforts at a meeting that began yesterday, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, July 27). The commission is expected to review construction of the chemical weapons destruction facility at Kambarka, which is slated to be finished by the end of 2005, according to a spokesman for the Privolzhsky federal district. The facility is being constructed under the terms of a federal program on destroying Russia’s weapons stockpiles approved on July 20. Russia expects to complete the second stage of chemical weapons disarmament by April 29, 2007, RIA Novosti reported. The country must destroy 20 percent of its stockpile by that year (RIA Novosti, July 27). Back to top

Iran Says It Finished Solid-Fuel Missile Technology Iran announced yesterday that it has completed development of indigenous solid-fuel missile technology, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 31). The technology gives Iran the ability to fire solid-fuel ballistic missiles like the Shahab 3, which has a range of 810 miles to more than 1,200 miles. Solid fuel increases the shelf life of missiles and significantly improves their accuracy, according to AP. “It’s an important step forward, an important achievement. It’s a locally developed achievement,” Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani told AP. Shamkani added, however, that Iran has not yet conducted a Shahab 3 flight test using solid fuel. Solid fuel was used in the test of a short-range Fateh 110, but Shamkhani did not say whether Iran had developed the fuel or imported it from another source, AP reported (Associated Press/ABCNews.com, July 27). Back to top

U.S. Overcommitted on Missile Defense, Expert Says By David Ruppe Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is funding the development and production of too many major systems, and would need to spend twice its projected annual budget to be able to afford it all, a defense expert said here yesterday (see GSN, June 10). The Bush administration, nevertheless, has rightly chosen to pursue numerous long-range missile defense technologies with the goal of creating multiple layers of defense, said RAND Senior Policy Analyst David Mosher, appearing on a panel hosted by Women in International Security. “In a sense, given how difficult the challenge is for missile defense, it’s the right approach. … It provides you some mitigation in case certain aspects of the program fail,” he said. “Unfortunately, although it’s the right approach, I think the administration has too many programs in its budget. … If you really wanted to do it right, I think you’d have to double the budget, or something like that, to fund all of those programs,” Mosher said. A major reason why the agency is overcommitted, he said, is that it has been buying and deploying significant amounts of missile defense equipment, such as ground-based interceptor missiles in Alaska and California. Those costs have sapped money from the development and testing of those and other systems, Mosher said. “What’s happened is the piece represented by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system has essentially been consuming resources, it’s become somewhat of a black hole.   In order to get it done, it’s taken more and more resources, because the original budgets weren’t put together very well and they’ve had unanticipated challenges. And as a result, what’s happened is it’s tended to starve off these other programs,” he said. The Bush administration has justified early and recurring deployment of systems as necessary to have at least some capability in the event an ICBM threat emerges from North Korea. Mosher said, however, that what has been deployed so far is not providing much defense against such a threat. “Often the systems that are deployed are of unproven … capabilities or perhaps no capability,” he said. “Nobody is expecting this system to be fully functioning or intercept anything at this point,” Mosher added. Mosher suggested cutting some programs and possibly scaling back short-term procurement plans. “We have to recognize that this is really difficult, is going to cost large sums of money, is going to take a well designed, fairly stable approach including research, development and testing in order to get something like this to work. [Not] taking shortcuts and compressed schedules,” he said. The Bush administration and Congress have begun to react to increasingly competitive missile defense budget pressures. The administration, as Mosher noted, cut $870 million for ground-based boost phase defense development from it’s the fiscal 2006 budget request in order to focus on an airborne laser program. Key senior lawmakers, meanwhile, have spoken of a need for reordering missile defense spending priorities, particularly in favor of the most developed system, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (see GSN, May 12). There has been no sign of interest in Congress or the administration to massively increase or decrease Missile Defense Agency funding, though the agency is forecasting a climb from the $7.8 billion budgeted this year to more than $10 billion by fiscal 2009 (see GSN, April 22). Back to top

Radiological Weapons Still Under the Radar, According to Those Working on Threat By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The potential for a radiological attack on the United States continues to receive less attention in Washington than nuclear, biological and chemical threats, despite a widely held view that a radiological attack is more likely than the others, officials and experts said here yesterday (see GSN, July 11). During a discussion at the Center for American Progress, panelists and audience members variously blamed Congress, President George W. Bush’s administration and policy institutes for giving too little attention to the “dirty bomb” threat. “Why isn’t there a sponsor — a champion for this?” asked Garry Tittemore, who directs the Global Radiological Threat Reduction Office in the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Tittemore, speaking from the audience at the panel discussion, questioned why the radiological threat has not spawned the creation of subject-specific nongovernmental organizations of the sort that are devoted to the dangers posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In a survey released last month by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a founder of the U.S. nuclear threat-reduction program, 85 leading officials, diplomats, scientists and experts in the field deemed a major radiological attack on a city more likely to occur in the next five years than a major nuclear, biological or chemical strike. The group is “almost a who’s who in the arms control community,” Tittemore said (see GSN, June 22). Despite the concern, the director of international programs in Tittemore’s office, Ioanna Iliopulos, told the panel, “We don’t have any champions out there in the NGO and other communities.” Center for American Progress national-security analyst Andrew Grotto, a panelist, said programs to address nuclear, biological and chemical threats are a “legacy” of the Cold War but that “there is no real arms control community for” radiological sources. “On the Hill,” added another panelist, American Association for the Advancement of Science Senior Program Associate Benn Tannenbaum, “there are very few people who are active on this particular topic.” Budgets for such activities as tracking and securing industrial and medical radiation sources remain small in comparison to those devoted to combating nuclear and other WMD proliferation. The NNSA Global Threat Reduction Initiative is to receive $98 million in fiscal 2006, up from $94 million in 2005 and $69 million in 2004, according to NNSA figures. Within that initiative is Tittemore’s office, which participants at the discussion said is the only U.S. government program devoted to the radiological threat. That office includes Iliopulos’ international program, funding for which has decreased from $30 million in fiscal 2004 to $24 million per year in fiscal 2005 and 2006, and a domestic component, funded for fiscal 2006 at close to $13 million, or more than twice the 2004 figure. The administration attributes the cut in the international budget to falling costs for installation of equipment to secure radiological materials. By comparison, the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program — one of several U.S. programs focused on nuclear sources — annually receives more than $400 million. In a report released yesterday, Grotto criticized the Bush administration for failing to make the “clear” radiological threat a “high enough priority.” “Major gaps remain in efforts to control devices that house radiological materials,” he wrote. “There is no domestic mechanism for reliably tracking the location and condition of all radiological sources, and the situation is often worse in other countries. Efforts to identify and intercept illicit shipments need better coordination and more resources. The United States lacks the capacity to effectively respond to an attack.” In what Grotto called one of the “positive developments” in addressing the threat, members of Congress are seeking to increase the security of U.S. radiation sources. The current version of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which is reportedly on the verge of final congressional approval, contains provisions that would place new restrictions on radiation-source exports and require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to set up a tracking system for radiation sources in the United States. Back to top       U.S. to Identify Food Supply Vulnerabilities U.S. federal and state officials are expected this fall to begin assessing vulnerabilities in the food supply in all 50 states, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, June 29). The Agriculture and Homeland Security departments, the Food and Drug Administration and the FBI are participating in the effort, announced at a Food and Agriculture Sector Coordinating Council meeting in Washington. “This partnership brings together all of the organizations that have the best knowledge and abilities in safeguarding the food we eat starting from the farm all the way to our kitchen tables,” said FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford in a statement. Crawford did not discuss in his statement potential added funding to counter agroterrorism, AP reported. Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said it is not known when officials would visit Alabama. He said that the state has a plan in place to detect “vulnerabilities” in the food supply and to make suggestions to industry on how to better protect food. Alabama is also preparing for problems with animal health. Sparks said Alabama’s policy “changes every day when it comes to animal health. … Our main concern is if something happens, contain it as quickly as we possibly can to limit losses.” The state expects to open a laboratory next spring with equipment that can detect anthrax and other threats, according to State Veterinarian Tony Frazier. “We have got to refocus our response and training to include public health awareness,” Frazier said (Garry Mitchell, Associated Press/Tuscaloosa News, July 27).     Back to top

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