A guard monitors the U.S. chemicals weapons depot in Tooele, Utah, where the final munition is expected to be destroyed well after an international treaty deadline (Reagan Frey/Getty Images). Nations Seek CW Treaty Relief By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The owners of the world’s major stocks of nerve and blister agents will go to the annual Chemical Weapons Convention conference next week seeking years of extra time to eliminate their arsenals (see GSN, Nov. 3). The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has received requests for extensions of the final deadline from nearly all treaty states that are known to possess munitions banned under the pact.  The big names are Russia and the United States, each with tens of thousands of tons of chemical agent, but also India, Libya, South Korea and China and Japan...Full Story

U.S., North Korea Meet Over Nuclear Talks U.S. and North Korean officials met today in Beijing to discuss resuming six-nation talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 20)...Full Story

ElBaradei Frustrated by Iranian Crisis By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire Top U.N. nuclear official Mohamed ElBaradei last week expressed unusual frustration with both Iran and, to a lesser extent its Western critics, over the inability of his agency to research Iran’s nuclear program (see GSN, Nov. 27)...Full Story

	Tuesday, November 28, 2006

U.S., North Korea Meet Over Nuclear Talks U.S. and North Korean officials met today in Beijing to discuss resuming six-nation talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 20). Hosted by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan were expected to discuss conditions for restoring the multinational talks. “We hope all sides can grasp this opportunity and take a flexible, pragmatic and constructive approach in order to realize the early resumption of six-party talks,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (Audra Ang, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Nov. 28). “I am here because of the kind invitation of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Mr. Hill,” said Kim.  “He is going to introduce me to his dancing rhythm” (Benjamin Kang Lim, Reuters/Washington Post, Nov. 28). Kim said North Korea’s nuclear test last month would enable Pyongyang to negotiate with the United States on more level ground. “As we have attained that position, we can now have discussions on an equal level,” he said.  “We will hold talks at any time, from the grand standpoint (of being a nuclear nation)” (Dan Martin, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Nov. 28). Back to top       ElBaradei Frustrated by Iranian Crisis By Greg Webb Global Security Newswire Top U.N. nuclear official Mohamed ElBaradei last week expressed unusual frustration with both Iran and, to a lesser extent its Western critics, over the inability of his agency to research Iran’s nuclear program (see GSN, Nov. 27). “We still need an explanation of the [Iranian nuclear] program from its inception to the present day:  How it was developed, what is the scope? That means meeting people, getting records, having evidence of what happened,” ElBaradei said Thursday in unscripted comments to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board.  Global Security Newswire acquired a transcript of his remarks today. ElBaradei’s comments followed a board decision not to fund an Iranian request for agency assistance in the construction of a heavy-water nuclear reactor.  Iranian officials have asserted that the reactor would be used to produce radioisotopes for peaceful purposes, including medical applications. U.S. officials, however, have said the facility is intended to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. A Western diplomat in Vienna said ElBaradei was frustrated by Iran seemingly dragging its feet in disclosing its past nuclear activities after a major hidden program was revealed more than three years ago.  He has also come under pressure from the West to make definitive judgments about Iran even though such pronouncements are beyond his authority, the diplomat said. “The [agency] secretariat does not, and I need to make this very clear, get involved in future intentions,” ElBaradei told the board.  “We report to you the facts. We stay away from future intentions because that is a matter of political risk assessment that we are not requested to do, we are not equipped to do, nor do I think it is proper for us to do.” While repeatedly urging Iran to offer more transparency over the past three years, ElBaradei has never suggested that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. Despite chiding Western nations, most of ElBaradei’s ire Thursday was directed toward Iran. “I want to emphasize that what we are doing is essentially giving a service to Iran,” he said.  An official assessment that Iran has declared all of its nuclear activities and materials would undermine U.S. efforts to impose U.N. Security Council sanctions against Tehran. Iran, however, has not seized that opportunity, ElBaradei said. “Iran must take the initiative to explain what happened if it wants to assure the international community that everything that is in Iran has now been declared,” he said. “I am, of course, concerned that we have been engaged on this process for over three years and for us after this time to continue to come back to you [the board] every three months and say that we still are not there is not very satisfactory,” he added. Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush today restated his policy that the United States would not join nuclear talks with Iran until Tehran freezes its uranium enrichment activities, the Associated Press reported. “Iran knows how to get to the table with us,” Bush said on a visit to Estonia.  “And that is to do that which they said they would do, which verifiably is suspend their enrichment program.” “The idea of this regime having a nuclear weapon, by which they could blackmail the world, is unacceptable to free nations,” he added. Exacerbating U.S. fears, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran could become an international nuclear supplier as its technology matures, Agence France-Presse reported. “We are ready to share our experience in different domains, including peaceful nuclear technology, with Algeria,” he said during a visit yesterday to Tehran by Algerian energy minister Shakib Khalil (see GSN, Mar. 22, 2005). Back to top       International Nonproliferation Efforts Threatened by Nuclear Powers, Blix Says U.S. and British security strategies have undermined international efforts to curb nuclear proliferation, a former top U.N. weapons inspector said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 16). “Despite some valuable progress in arms control and disarmament during the 1990s, we are actually in a phase of re-armament,” said Hans Blix, who directed U.N. weapons inspection efforts in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The Bush administration’s doctrine of using pre-emptive force, its pursuit of missile defenses and its consideration of placing weapons in space are all policies that encourage other nations to purse nuclear weapons, Blix told a meeting at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London. “While the overwhelming majority of states reject the U.S. claims to (pre-emptive) license on the use of armed force, there may be a risk that these U.S. policies and doctrines, the development of small nuclear weapons, and the trend toward conventionalization could, one day, lead to the use of nuclear weapons,” he said. British consideration of deploying a new generation of nuclear weapons also contributes to international frustration among states that wish to see the nuclear powers reduce their arsenals.  Non-nuclear nations feel “cheated … when the have-states are deciding new types of weapons,” Blix said (Steven Edwards, Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 28). Back to top

Nations Seek CW Treaty Relief By Chris Schneidmiller Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The owners of the world’s major stocks of nerve and blister agents will go to the annual Chemical Weapons Convention conference next week seeking years of extra time to eliminate their arsenals (see GSN, Nov. 3). The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has received requests for extensions of the final deadline from nearly all treaty states that are known to possess munitions banned under the pact.  The big names are Russia and the United States, each with tens of thousands of tons of chemical agent, but also India, Libya, South Korea and China and Japan. Each presently has until April 29, 2007, the 10th anniversary of the treaty’s entry into force, to finish disposal.  The convention, though, allows for an extension of up to five years. Delegates from treaty nations are expected to consider the requests when they gather Dec. 5 to 8 in The Hague for the 11th Conference of States Parties. “[It is] unlikely that any of the requests will be rejected,” John Gilbert, a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, said by e-mail.  “All of the delayed CW destruction programs face fact-of-life delays.  Even though some states parties have not moved expeditiously — such as Russia — the programs cannot be accelerated enough to meet deadlines.” States parties will also decide whether to approve visits by delegates from its Executive Council to disposal sites in those countries that requested extensions.  The annual visits would be aimed at verifying that work is progressing as required. All the chemical weapons states have made progress on disarmament, according to Peter Kaiser, spokesman for the agency that monitors treaty compliance.  Some, however, are not expected to meet even the final allowed deadline of April, 29, 2012.  The latest U.S. schedule calls for work to be completed in 2023 (see GSN, Nov. 21).  Experts say that disposal of weapons in China and Russia also will stretch beyond the next five years and five months. Various reasons are offered for the delays.  Nations generally have found the work more complicated than anticipated when the process began, a U.S. official familiar with the issue told Global Security Newswire.  The Defense Department cited regulatory hurdles, safety and security requirements, and technological difficulties in building disposal facilities among the reasons for missing the 2012 deadline. Two complications seem to cross boundaries, Gilbert said:  local political opposition to construction nearby of a disposal facility, and inability or unwillingness to meet the cost of designing, building and operating plants. “There has also been a certain lack of priority given to getting rid of old weapons that no one’s going to use when nations are concerned about new weapons that they are going to use,” Alan Pearson, director of the center’s Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program, said in a telephone interview. Use of industrially produced chemical weapons dates to World War I, when battling militaries used chlorine, phosgene, mustard and other gases to incapacitate or kill each other.  The weapons have been repeatedly used in warfare and terrorism in the subsequent decades.  The most notable incident in recent years was the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people (see GSN, Sept. 18). The Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlawed the development, possession and use of such weapons, was signed in 1993 and entered into force four years later.  Twenty-one percent of the known global stockpile of agents such as VX, mustard and sarin — 15 million kilograms — has been destroyed to date, according to OPCW figures.  More than 2.5 million munitions and bulk containers have been destroyed, and all chemical weapons production facilities among the 181 treaty members have been shut down. A number of nations are suspected of maintaining offensive chemical weapons programs, including Iran, Israel, North Korea and Syria. The only treaty nation expected to fully eliminate its chemical weapons material by next April is Albania, which is believed to possess just 16 tons of mustard agent.  U.S.-supported disposal could begin next month, the U.S. official said. The United States has incinerated or chemically neutralized 37 percent of its nearly 28,000 metric tons of “Category 1” munitions — those that contain agents with little to no use outside weaponry.  All Category 3 weapons — unfilled munitions — have been destroyed, and there is no indication of U.S.-developed Category 2 weapons, which would contain less-dangerous materials. Two U.S. sites have finished their work, disposal is under way at another five facilities and two have yet to be built.  Weapons neutralization plants at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky are scheduled to eliminate the last of their munitions, respectively, in 2020 and 2023. Russia has eliminated more than 6 percent of its stockpile of Category 1 chemical agent, the world’s largest at 40,000 metric tons, according to OPCW figures.  All other weapons have been destroyed.  Three of its seven intended facilities have been built, and one has completed its task. Beijing and Tokyo are still collecting upwards of 400,000 weapons left in China by the retreating Japanese army at the end of World War II (see GSN, May 2).  The weapons are to be destroyed at a Japanese-built facility in China; there is no indication that any have been eliminated to date, Gilbert said. While Washington, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo are seeking the entire five-year extension, other states say they need less time. India has eliminated nearly 70 percent of its Category 1 chemical weapons, plus all other munitions, and plans to finish disposal in April 2009.  Details of its arsenal are limited; Chinese defense researchers have indicated that the stockpile consists of 1,000 tons of chemical agent, mostly mustard, along with multiple delivery devices, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Libya is scheduled to finish off its estimated 23 tons of mustard agent by Dec. 31, 2010, and its Category 2 weapons a year later.  South Korea, which the organization refers to strictly only as “a state party,” has completed 85 percent of disposal and should be done by the end of 2008. Delegates at the conference are not likely to worry this year about states missing the final 2012 deadline, Pearson said.  “That’s my sense, [that] they’re going to take it when it comes as opposed to take care of it now,” he said. While the treaty allows for sanctions or other measures for countries that violate their obligations, Pearson said the effects of missing the 2012 deadline would largely depend on how far along weapons-possessing nations are at that point in their elimination efforts. “If at the end of the day, if there’s been a significant reduction by 2012 … then probably the effects won’t be as great unless the states want to use it as a bargaining chip for other things,” he said.  “On the other hand, if the deadline is extended and there’s still not significant progress then I think you have another ballgame there.” Back to top       Japan Conducts Large Scale CW Terror Drill Japan conducted a major terrorism-response exercise Sunday that simulated a chemicals weapons attack by North Korean agents, the Daily Yomiuri reported.  About 2,000 people participated, including local and federal emergency personnel (see GSN, June 13). The exercise was the fourth in a series and the first that did not give participants advance notice of the type of simulated attack, according to Yomiuri. The mock chemical attack was made using a sarin-filled explosive that killed 10 people and wounded 200, officials said (Daily Yomiuri, Nov. 28). Back to top       OPCW Chief Calls for International Code of Ethics The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog called yesterday for a code of conduct for scientists ensuring against the proliferation of unconventional weapons (see GSN, Feb. 22). Addressing an international symposium on chemical weapons in Singapore, Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, called for a new code of ethics to be incorporated in chemistry curriculums at educational institutions worldwide, Channel News Asia reported. “The scientific community has the know-how. It could play a major role in ensuring their work is not a disservice and is not available to those who are pursuing means that are contrary to peace and security in the world,” he said. At the same conference, Singapore’s Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean described a collaborative effort with the government of Australia, resulting in a joint antibody laboratory for developing detection and diagnostic capabilities against the toxin ricin. “We recognize the importance of international collaboration in (chemical, biological, radiological and explosive) defense research,” Teo said.  “To this end, Singapore has been working closely with international partners such as the U.S., U.K., Sweden, France, Germany and Australia.” Four-hundred and fifty delegates from more than 30 countries will be attending the fifth International symposium on Protection Against Toxic Substances in the coming days (Farah Abdul Rahim, Channel News Asia, Nov. 27).. Back to top

Japan Raps Firm for Missile-Related Sale to Iran Japanese authorities have banned a Tokyo-based firm from exporting any goods for the next two years as punishment for its sale to Iran of machinery that could be used to enhance Tehran’s ballistic missile capability, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, Oct. 15, 2004). The Seishin Enterprise Corp. shipped a jet-mill grinder to Iran in 1999 and another in 2000 without getting government approval.  The equipment requires an export license because it can be used to produce fine powders, a process that improves solid rocket fuel, AFP reported.  The penalty ban will take effect Dec. 5. Two top company executives were convicted in 2004 for breaking Japanese export laws and received suspended sentences (Agence France-Presse/Middle East Times, Nov. 28) Back to top

Russian Official Blasts Missile Defenses in Europe Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov called the possible deployment of U.S. missile defense installations in Eastern Europe a camouflaged attempt to erode Russia’s strategic deterrent (see GSN, Nov. 20). Ivanov made his comments about the possible missile defense deployments in an interview with Soyuznoye Gosudarstvo magazine, according to the Interfax news agency. The deployment of antimissile installations is “not among the measures promoting the strengthening of European security,” Ivanov said.  “We are being assured that this system is allegedly intended for the interception of Iranian ballistic missile.  But Iran currently does not have any missiles of this category and it is unlikely that they will appear in the foreseeable future.” U.S. officials are in talks with NATO states Poland and the Czech Republic regarding possible missile defense bases in Eastern Europe.  Any European-based interceptors would be the first off U.S. soil. “The threat which is being stated by the Americans and which the system that is being created is aimed at countering, is merely a camouflage of an attempt to alter strategic stability and influence the Russian deterrent potential in a destabilizing manner,” he said. Ivanov said “such changes do not scare” Russia.  “We will find solutions, which are asymmetrical but no less effective because of this to defend national interests,” he added (Interfax, Nov. 28) Back to top       Aegis-Equipped Missile Defense Fleet Tops 80 Ships The U.S. firm Lockheed Martin has delivered its 100th Aegis Weapon System to the U.S. Navy during a ceremony in New Jersey, Space Daily reported (see GSN, Nov. 27). In honor of the naval official who pushed for the now-widespread system, the destroyer being equipped with the missile defense component will be named the Wayne E. Meyer, said Admiral Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations. “I can think of no better name for a new destroyer than Wayne E. Meyer and no better tribute to the man who inspired and delivered Aegis to our fleet,” Mullen said.  The Navy’s missile defense fleet now tops 80 ships, according to Space Daily. The Aegis system, which was introduced in its first version in 1983, pairs a powerful sea-based radar with antimissile-capable missiles and is the primary component of the U.S. sea-based element of the national ballistic missile defense system. The Navy is currently building 13 Aegis-equipped ships and is updating a number of Aegis-outfitted ships built in the 1980s with a more modern version of the system.  The first modernized cruiser with the more advanced Aegis system will be delivered to the navy in 2008. Besides the American fleet, the militaries of Japan, South Korea, Spain and Norway use the Aegis system (Space Daily, Nov. 28). Back to top

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