IAEA team leader Adel Tolba speaks to reporters in Beijing yesterday after leaving North Korea, where he said officials have cooperated with nuclear inspectors (Peter Parks/Getty Images). North Korea Cooperating With Nuclear Inspectors, IAEA Says U.N. inspectors completed the first stage of shuttering North Korea’s main nuclear reactor without any resistance from Pyongyang, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 30). “We have a full cooperation with the D.P.R.K. authorities,” said departing International Atomic Energy Agency inspector Adel Tolba.  ..Full Story

U.S. Blames Pakistan Proliferation for Divide A U.S. State Department official said yesterday that Pakistan’s loose proliferation history has kept the United States from pursuing a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan similar to the U.S.-Indian deal announced last week (see GSN, July 27)...Full Story

IAEA Inspectors Visit Arak Reactor International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors visited Iran’s incomplete Arak nuclear reactor yesterday for the first time since Tehran barred the U.N. nuclear from the site in April, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 30)...Full Story

	Tuesday, July 31, 2007

North Korea Cooperating With Nuclear Inspectors, IAEA Says U.N. inspectors completed the first stage of shuttering North Korea’s main nuclear reactor without any resistance from Pyongyang, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 30). “We have a full cooperation with the D.P.R.K. authorities,” said departing International Atomic Energy Agency inspector Adel Tolba.  Tolba and his nine-member team supervised the initial shutdown of the main Yongbyon nuclear reactor.  They were replaced Saturday by a fresh group of six agency inspectors. “We finished what was planned,” Tolba said today at the Pyongyong airport.  “Assessment will be done in Vienna.” The U.N. nuclear watchdog must still address a North Korean nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, fuel production facility and two half-built reactors, AP reported (Associated Press/Time, July 31). Meanwhile, the Philippines’ foreign secretary yesterday issued support for six-party North Korean denuclearization talks on the fringes of an Asian regional security conference in Manila, Business World reported. Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo encouraged the nuclear discussions during a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun. All participants in the nuclear negotiations—the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas—are represented this week at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum, but no nuclear disarmament talks have been scheduled, said Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Claro Cristobal. During their meeting, Pak and Romulo vowed to forge closer ties between Manila and Pyongyang. Cristobal said the countries would cooperate in areas of energy, culture and information technology, but declined to elaborate, Business World reported. “Specific areas for future cooperation,” included energy, culture and communications technology, Cristobal added without elaboration. Romulo also christened an ASEAN nuclear watchdog yesterday, promising it would work towards building a meaningful regional nonproliferation regime. “(ASEAN) wants that those who have [a nuclear capability] won’t proliferate, and that those who don’t have it won’t do tests,” Romulo said at the inaugural meeting of the Commission for the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. As part of the nonproliferation framework, the Philippines will petition ASEAN members and forum observers to join the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Romulo said.  India, Pakistan and North Korea, all attending the conference, have so far refused to sign the nuclear testing ban (Business World, July 30). Back to top       U.S. Blames Pakistan Proliferation for Divide                                                             A U.S. State Department official said yesterday that Pakistan’s loose proliferation history has kept the United States from pursuing a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan similar to the U.S.-Indian deal announced last week (see GSN, July 27). We have “been very clear that because of the issues with proliferation from Pakistan, that it’s a very different situation between those two countries,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in a press briefing yesterday.  “The fact that we have this agreement with India now is a clear recognition that there is a real difference.” Casey said the United States hopes to bring New Delhi’s civilian nuclear program into the “nonproliferation mainstream” through its pending deal with India. “India has been a responsible actor.  It’s been outside the nonproliferation regimes, but it’s actually behaved responsibly.  It hasn’t proliferated weapons technology.  It hasn’t done anything to undermine international assurances,” Casey added (U.S. State Department release, July 30). The United States and India must quickly clear the agreement with international agencies and their own governments in order to finalize the deal before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office, the U.S. ambassador to India said yesterday (see GSN, July 30). For the U.S. Congress to approve the deal, Indian officials must prepare a plan for inspections of its civilian nuclear plants by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group must modify its nuclear export guidelines that currently bar trade with nations outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “We are confident we can get this through Congress but there are certain considerations that need to be borne in mind,” Ambassador David Mulford said. “One of those is the passage of time.” (Y.P. Rajesh, Washington Post, July 30) France, a key NSG member, agreed with India yesterday to complete a bilateral civilian nuclear deal, the Press Trust of India reported. “Both parties stressed their common endeavor to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, including power generation, and agreed to conclude expeditiously a bilateral cooperation agreement,'' the French Embassy in New Delhi said in a statement (Press Trust of India/NDTV, July 30). Back to top       IAEA Inspectors Visit Arak Reactor International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors visited Iran’s incomplete Arak nuclear reactor yesterday for the first time since Tehran barred the U.N. nuclear from the site in April, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 30). “The team visited the 40-megawatt research reactor in Arak,” said an unnamed Iranian official, according to AP.  “The inspection took some five hours.” (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Washington Post, July 30) An IAEA official in Vienna confirmed the visit, adding that inspectors had full access to the site, Reuters reported.   The official declined to elaborate, saying that details of the visit would be reported to a September meeting of the agency’s 35-nation governing board. Arak, if completed, could be used to produce weapon-grade plutonium, one possible ingredient in nuclear weapons (Reuters/New York Times, July 30). Back to top       Australia May Sell Uranium to India, Official Says Australia’s foreign minister said that a U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal could pave the way for uranium sales to New Delhi, the Australian Associated Press reported (see GSN, Mar. 29). The deal was “very much in Australia’s interests,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said while visiting the Philippines. The U.S.-Indian deal’s nonproliferation safeguards, which include international inspections of more than half of all Indian nuclear reactors, make India a possible recipient of Australian uranium sales even though India has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Australia announced last week it was considering selling uranium to India, AP reported. “India’s commitment to separate it civil and military nuclear facilities enabling expansion of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards will help to bring India more fully into the nonproliferation mainstream,” Downer said in a statement.  “Australia shares the goal of engaging with India as a constructive and responsible partner in preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” (Australian Associated Press, July 31) Back to top

U.S. Funds Protective Enzyme Research An Israeli biotechnology firm has begun a three-year investigation funded by the U.S. military into a natural enzyme’s ability to protect against damage from sarin nerve gas, the London Times reported yesterday (see GSN, July 25). In the largely top-secret study, the life sciences research company Braintact plans to test the enzyme’s ability to protect rats, pigs and primates from damage by the nerve agent.  Past studies have suggested that the enzyme, known as GOT, protected rats from brain damage by the chemical paraoxon, a laboratory substitute chemically similar to nerve agents such as sarin, soman and VX, which can cause brain damage or death in very small doses. Previous research has also suggested that the enzyme can help to limit neurological damage following a stroke, brain disease or serious head injury (David Rose, London Times, July 30). Back to top

Czech Chemical Warfare Unit Heads to Afghanistan The Czech Republic today sent medics and a chemical warfare unit to join the international mission in Afghanistan, the BBC reported (see GSN, Feb. 6). The chemical defense unit is part of a Czech field hospital team set to work in Kabul.  Prague faces stiff Russian criticism for participating in a U.S.-backed missile defense plan and for supporting U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan (see GSN, Feb 22; Czech News Agency/Ceske Noviny, July 31). Back to top

U.S.-Russian Talks to Ease Tensions, Official Says U.S. and Russian officials met in Washington yesterday to discuss U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe, the Moscow Times reported.  The meeting, the first of three or four planned through October, should help to ease rising tensions between the two nations, Russia’s foreign minister said (see GSN, July 30). “We believe that the result will be encouraging, at least with regard to continuing contacts and clarifying the positions,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said while previewing the talks for top Russian officials.  Yesterday’s session was the first for technical experts to address U.S. goals and Russian concerns over the plan to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic, the Times reported (Moscow Times, July 31). Back to top       Antisatellite Test Misinterpreted, China Says China did not intend to alarm any specific nation with its successful January antisatellite test, a top Chinese military official said in an interview published by ITAR-Tass today (see GSN, April 23). “This test is not targeted against any other country and does not threaten security of other states,” said Major-General Zhu Da, who represents the Chinese military in Russia.  The Jan. 11 test destroyed one of China’s own weather satellites with a modified ballistic missile, roiling some U.S. defense experts who viewed the demonstration as Chinese space saber-rattling (see GSN, June 26). “China has never participated and will not participate in a space arms race,” Zhu added.  Zhu said China is working with Russia to curb weaponization of outer space, ITAR-Tass reported. “Beijing is ready together with Moscow to exert every effort regarding opposing the proliferation of mass destruction weapons in space,” he said (ITAR-Tass, July 31). Back to top       U.S. Missile Defense Laser Passes Test The U.S. Missile Defense Agency last week successfully tested the in-flight target acquisition and tracking abilities of its Airborne Laser aircraft, according to the Space and Missile Defense Report (see GSN, July 17). The test demonstrated the aircraft tracking laser’s ability to fix on a missile with low-powered tracking beams, to adjust for atmospheric disturbances and to start the high-powered destructor laser sequence. The laser system completed these steps quickly enough to intercept an incoming missile, said the Report. The antiballistic missile laser will continue testing until its planned installation at Edwards Air Force Base later this summer. Meanwhile, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee gave the missile defense laser program a significant fiscal boost, saving it from large projected cuts in the fiscal 2008 defense budget. President George W. Bush originally requested $549 million for the program next fiscal year but the Armed Services Committee initially lopped that amount down to $299 million.  In its final report, however, the Appropriations Committee restored most of that cut, funding the program at $499 million for fiscal 2008, according to the Report. The committee lauded the laser program as “vital” in the budget report, potentially making future cuts to the laser program more difficult to enact (Space and Missile Defense Report, July 30). Back to top

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