U.S. nuclear negotiator Sung Kim leaves North Korea carrying documents on the country’s nuclear activities (Chung Sung-jun/Getty Images). U.S. Officials Take Nuclear Facility Documents Out of North Korea Five U.S. officials on Saturday removed seven boxes filled with nuclear information from North Korea, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 9). Team leader Sung Kim was expected today in Washington with records on operations since 1986 of North Korea’s plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and an associated fuel reprocessing site at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The 18,000 papers are intended to provide details of Pyongyang’s plutonium program, which Washington has demanded as part of the ongoing effort to shutter North Korea’s nuclear sector. “We have to take them back and see,” Kim, Korean affairs chief at the State Department, said Saturday after returning to South Korea...Full Story

North Korean Equipment Buyer Triggered International Interest in Syrian Nuclear Activities North Korea used layers of middlemen and front companies to purchase equipment that ended up in a Syrian nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel last year before it could become operational, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, May 8)...Full Story

Iran, U.N. Nuclear Agency Start New Talks The International Atomic Energy Agency began new negotiations with Iran today over the nation’s nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is directed toward weapons development, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 8)...Full Story

	Monday, May 12, 2008

U.S. Officials Take Nuclear Facility Documents Out of North Korea Five U.S. officials on Saturday removed seven boxes filled with nuclear information from North Korea, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 9). Team leader Sung Kim was expected today in Washington with records on operations since 1986 of North Korea’s plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and an associated fuel reprocessing site at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The 18,000 papers are intended to provide details of Pyongyang’s plutonium program, which Washington has demanded as part of the ongoing effort to shutter North Korea’s nuclear sector. “We have to take them back and see,” Kim, Korean affairs chief at the State Department, said Saturday after returning to South Korea. U.S. officials hope the records will help them determine exactly how much weapon-usable plutonium North Korea has produced at Yongbyon.  They would also be used to verify details of Pyongyang’s anticipated accounting of its nuclear efforts, a requirement of a 2007 denuclearization agreement (Jin-Man Lee, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, May 10). “These documents will be examined thoroughly by a team of U.S. verification and other experts,” the State Department said Saturday. “The United States and the other parties [in the six-nation talks] continue to press the D.P.R.K. to fulfill its declaration commitment under the Oct. 3, 2007, agreement,” the agency said.  “Review of the operating records provided on May 8 will be an important first step in the process of verifying that North Korea’s declaration is complete and correct.” The declaration was due Dec. 31 during the second phase of denuclearization, which also includes disablement of the reactor, reprocessing plant and a fuel fabrication facility at Yongbyon.  North Korea has completed eight of 11 steps of disablement and is removing fuel rods from the reactor under U.S. supervision.  “Work on disablement activities continues,” the State Department said (U.S. State Department release, May 10). China is also expected to receive copies of the North Korean documents, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said Friday.  Beijing could then pass the information onto the other six-party talks nations — Japan, Russia and South Korea, Agence France-Presse reported. “I think the next round of six-party talks will resume late this month or early June,” Moon said (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, May 10). A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said talks would resume when U.S. officials had finished their review of the documents, AP reported.  The outcome of that review is also critical to Pyongyang’s aim to be removed from U.S. economic sanctions lists (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press II, May 11). One expert said the release of the documents indicates North Korea’s desire to see success in the six-party process, which has faltered this year amid the dispute over the declaration, Yonhap News Agency reported.  “A condition has been created so that related nations can wrap up the second stage when the six-way talks are resumed,” said professor Kim Youn-chul of Korea University in Seoul (Yonhap News Agency, May 11). When the second phase of denuclearization is complete, the agreement calls on North Korea to fully dismantle its atomic complex.  Another expert questioned whether Pyongyang is truly prepared to meet its obligations, the Christian Science Monitor reported today. “Fundamentally, I don’t think the North Koreans will be very correct and honest in their declaration,” said Kim Tae-woo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.  “It’s impossible they will give up their nuclear option” (Donald Kirk, Christian Science Monitor, May 12). Back to top       North Korean Equipment Buyer Triggered International Interest in Syrian Nuclear Activities North Korea used layers of middlemen and front companies to purchase equipment that ended up in a Syrian nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel last year before it could become operational, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, May 8). The supply network was headed by North Korean businessman Ho Jin Yun, who attracted the attention of U.S. intelligence services as he traveled throughout Europe in the early 2000s buying esoteric equipment such as gas masks, steel pipes, vacuum pumps and aluminum tubes, according to the Post. Yun’s firm — Namchongang Trading, or NCG — served to coordinate activities between North Korea and Syria while acquiring key materials and technology through firms in China and Europe, according to U.S. officials, European intelligence officials and diplomats. Some of the transactions accidentally drew attention from intelligence services and subsequently led to a better understanding of the Syrian site attacked by Israel in September.  Last month, U.S. intelligence officials publicly released strong evidence that the site was a nuclear reactor under construction, but Syria has denied any nuclear role for the facility. “We judged that these interactions were probably nuclear-related … because of who it was we were seeing in those interactions,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official describing early analyses.  “We assessed the cooperation involved work sites probably within Syria.  But again, we didn’t know exactly where.” North Korea has experience working with front companies to hide the final recipient of sensitive equipment from innocent suppliers, analysts said. NCG has served “as a trading agent or middleman, buying items through Chinese trading companies or directly from foreign companies,” said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security. “North Korea often works through these trading companies, which facilitate business deals and other activities overseas that earn foreign exchange for the government and especially for the top leadership,” added Congressional Research Service specialist Larry Niksch.  “They have been very active in the past in facilitating missile sales in countries like Syria and Iran.” “Sometimes they can fool the supplier by saying the goods are intended for another country altogether,” said a U.S. counterproliferation official.  “North Korea does this very well.” Both China and Syria denied that any illicit trade was conducted in their countries. “If this company conducts business with Syria, the terms of transactions would abide by, and would be within, the legal framework of the international community,” said Ahmed Salkini, spokesman for the Syrian Embassy. “I am not aware of anything about the North Korean company mentioned,” added Chinese Embassy spokesperson Wang Baodong.  “China is steadfastly opposed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and its deliveries, and it has been faithfully honoring its international obligations and responsibilities.” Meanwhile, one U.S. official issued the strongest endorsement yet of the Israeli air attack. “The reactor which was being built was not very far from being operational and needed to be hit,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen in a recent interview (Wright/Warrick, Washington Post I, May 11). Camouflage Efforts The Syrian case has illustrated the difficulty intelligence agencies face as they try to detect covert nuclear activities, according to a report Albright released today. “The current domestic and international capabilities to detect nuclear facilities and activities are not adequate to prevent more surprises in the future,” the ISIS report says. Before the Syrian facility was leveled, designers went to “astonishing lengths” to conceal the site’s true function by hiding the reactor’s power and cooling systems as well as other telltale features, the report says. Power lines that are typically above ground were buried, as was a network of water pipes needed to cool the reactor.  Ventilation towers, the classic symbol of nuclear power plants, were replaced by a venting system that was built into the walls of the reactor building, making it difficult to detect with overhead imagery, the Post reported (Joby Warrick, Washington Post II, May 12). Back to top       Iran, U.N. Nuclear Agency Start New Talks The International Atomic Energy Agency began new negotiations with Iran today over the nation’s nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is directed toward weapons development, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 8). Agency safeguards operations director Herman Nackaerts and Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iranian envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, are reportedly leading the talks in Tehran.  A source told Iranian state media that this round of meetings is expected to last for three days. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is scheduled next month to report to his agency’s governing board and the U.N. Security Council on an ongoing probe of Iran’s nuclear intentions (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, May 11). Absent from this week’s discussions is IAEA safeguards chief Olli Heinonen, who led two recent rounds of talks with Iran over allegations that it had conducted nuclear weapon design research, Reuters reported (Reuters, May 11). Iran yesterday again ruled out any compromise proposals over its nuclear program that require suspension of uranium enrichment in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives, the Associated Press reported.  Six world powers are reportedly preparing to submit an updated version of a 2006 deal to Tehran. Iran maintains that its enrichment program would only produce fuel for nuclear power, although the process can also create a key nuclear weapon ingredient. “No incentive weighs equally with the rights of Iranian nation," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini said, adding that uranium enrichment is his nation’s “undisputable right” under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, May 11). Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Washington Post in an interview published yesterday that his nation would not tolerate Iran becoming a nuclear weapons power. “Israel will not tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of people who say openly, explicitly and publicly that they want to wipe Israel off the map.  Why should we?” Olmert also strongly contested a 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusion that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development in 2003.  “Based on the information we have, the military program continues and has never been stopped.  If this program continues, at some point they will be in possession of a nuclear weapon,” he said (Lally Weymouth, Washington Post, May 9). Back to top       Mixed Results Seen 10 Years After Indian, Pakistani Nuclear Weapons Tests, Experts Say The May 1998 nuclear tests in India and Pakistan have produced unforeseen consequences over the last decade in at least one of the nations, experts said in an Indo-Asian News Service story published yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 2). India tested five weapons on May 11 and 13, 1998.  Then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced at the end of the month that his nation in response had conducted an equal number of blasts. Confirmation of both nations’ nuclear status might have helped stabilize relations between the neighboring rivals, experts said. “Nuclear weapons have given greater confidence to the Pakistani security establishment and, to a great extent, neutralized India’s superiority in conventional defense,” said defense analyst Hassan Askari-Rizvi. However, Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal has also “contributed to increasing internal insecurities for Pakistan,” he added. “Our nukes have given us the ability to destroy India, but that’s about it,” said physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy.  “While we slowly regress, India forges ahead in science, space and computer technology, industry, education, governance, social mobilization, nation-building and international outreach.” Years after the international uproar that followed the 1998 tests, Pakistan’s nuclear program has stopped being a major issue in its diplomatic relations with the United States, Askari-Rizvi said.  “Counterterrorism has become the most salient issue,” he said. Nuclear security has become a larger issue between Islamabad and Washington, IANS reported (see GSN, April 18). “The U.S. has accepted India’s nukes, not ours,” Hoodbhoy said.  “The world is terrified of Pakistan’s nukes going loose and rightly so too.  It is quite possible that someday the jihadists will seize the nuclear weapons or nuclear materials.” In the wake of the 1998 tests, “for a while Pakistan’s reputation shot up internationally,” Hoodbhoy said.  “More accurately, many thought it did.  The assumption was that a big stick commands respect.  This is false, and the gain was strictly temporary.” Pakistan’s nuclear program also failed to drive India out of the disputed Kashmir region and opened the door for the international embarrassment caused by the nuclear proliferation ring operated by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, experts said (see GSN, April 10). “We are almost a nuclear pariah,” said peace activist A.H. Nayyar (Indo-Asian News Service/Yahoo!News, May 11). India and Pakistan have not conducted any nuclear test blasts since May 1998.  However, “India has plans for a deterrent it deems worthy of a major power, which might entail further tests to certify thermonuclear weapon designs. If India tests again, Pakistan is likely to do so as well,” Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, wrote in the May issue of Arms Control Today. The two nations also remain among the primary obstacles to the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Krepon stated (Michael Krepon, Arms Control Today, May 2008). Back to top       Rice, Mukherjee Discuss Nuclear Trade Deal Two senior U.S. and Indian officials discussed a tentative nuclear trade deal Friday, with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee describing continuing “difficulties” in persuading key critics to support the agreement, the Indo-Asian News Service reported (see GSN, May 9). Mukherjee spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mostly about coordinating aid to storm victims in Myanmar, but “of course part of their discussion also was about the Indian civil nuclear deal,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Mukherjee reported “difficulties,” sources told the news service, but he also expressed hope of ending the opposition by key supporters of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Indo-Asian News Service/Yahoo!News, May 10). Back to top       NATO Fighter Jets Practice Attacks on Russian Long-Range Strategic Bombers, General Says The head of the Russian air force on Saturday accused NATO member states of practicing attacks against long-range strategic bombers from his nation, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 1). “Regularly as our flights are fulfilling combat patrols, we are tracked by planes from the patrol forces of both NATO and other countries,” Interfax quoted Gen. Alexander Zelin as saying.  “Over the waters of the Arctic Ocean we are regularly attacked by F-15, F-16 and F-22 aircraft.  I did not use the word ‘attack’ lightly, as our partners, so to speak, practice combat maneuvers, up to the threshold of an attack. “I can tell you this is not very pleasant, even dangerous.  Naturally we practice countermaneuvers,” Zelin said. Russia has no plans to stop sending strategic bombers far outside its territory, the general added.  Russia resumed the bomber missions last August for the first time since the end of the Cold War, when the flights were conducted routinely by the Soviet Union (see GSN, August 9, 2007).  The planes are not armed with nuclear weapons, according to Russian officials. Flights are scheduled to continue over the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as the Black and Mediterranean seas, Zelin said (Agence France-Presse/NASDAQ.com, May 10). Back to top       U.S. Begins Security Upgrades at Livermore The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration has begun making security improvements at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California after inspectors noted problems in a number of areas, the agency said Friday (see GSN, April 16). The Energy Department’s Health, Safety and Security Office over the last seven weeks conducted a standard assessment of laboratory security that included a simulated attack on the site.  The office reported its preliminary findings to NNSA officials, who initiated an expert assessment of steps taken by the laboratory to address the problems. NNSA Principal Deputy Bill Ostendorff said in a statement that the agency’s office at Livermore would work with the laboratory to address security issues that require immediate consideration.  High-level NNSA officials have also discussed the problems with the laboratory’s governing board (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, May 9). Back to top

U.S. Could Offer Israel X-Band Radar U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to discuss making the X-band ballistic missile radar system available to Israel during talks this week, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 15). The radar would be “probably the No. 2 issue” for Bush’s trip to Israel scheduled to begin Wednesday, said U.S. Representative Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), an advocate for greater missile defense cooperation between the two nations. The forward-based X-band radar uses pulsating beams to track ballistic missiles that could be equipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.  With its high resolution, the system could follow the movement of an object the size of a baseball from a distance of 2,900 miles, according to U.S. officials. The offer would come amid growing concerns about the possible threat that Iran poses to Israel.  According to Kirk, Israel could use the radar to counter an Iranian Shahab 3 ballistic missile much earlier than its Green Pine radar allows.  The Iranian missile would likely be destroyed over Iran or an adjacent nation rather than Israel, he told Reuters on Friday. “This is the best thing to lower tensions between Israel and Iran” because Tehran would be less likely to launch a missile that might fall on its own territory, he said. According to a letter sent to Bush by roughly 70 U.S. lawmakers last week, the X-band system would augment Israel’s “battle management” and “early warning” capabilities. The U.S. Defense Department plans to deploy three of its own mobile X-band radars in addition to one system already placed in northern Japan to guard against North Korean missile attacks, said U.S. Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner. Lehner added that another radar is tentatively slated for deployment in a country close to Iran.  The mobile systems could go “wherever they are needed” by U.S. military commanders, he said (Jim Wolf, Reuters, May 11). Back to top       U.S. Free to Consider Other Missile Interceptor Locations, Polish Foreign Minister Says The Polish government would not object to the United States looking at other countries to host 10 missile interceptors, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Friday (see GSN, May 7). Amid negotiations with Warsaw that began in early 2007, the Bush administration has suggested that other nations might be added to the list of possible hosts for the weapons, the Associated Press reported. “From what I know, it would be less advantageous, but undoubtedly possible,” Sikorski told Polish state radio.  “This is America’s decision, with which we will not interfere.” Poland has demanded U.S. support for upgrades to its military, including delivery of air-defense technology, as part of any deal on the missile defense installation. “The fact that the United States sent a few dozen experts [to talks last week in Warsaw] gives us hope that they are treating the issue seriously,” Sikorski said.  Officials from the two capitals agreed to create four working groups to consider issues related to the interceptor agreement (see GSN, May 8). The Bush administration also hopes to place an early warning radar in the Czech Republic to counter potential missile threats from Iran (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, May 9). Back to top

Telescope Parts Used in Radiation Detector A University of New Hampshire scientist has retooled technology from a disused NASA telescope to detect radiation emitted by possible radiological “dirty bomb” materials, Nature reported Friday (see GSN, May 5). The detector identifies materials such as plutonium, uranium and cesium by their gamma ray signatures using parts from the telescope, a former component of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory that crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2000. “If we can detect aluminum 26 on the other side of the galaxy, we can detect this stuff on the other side of the street,” said James Ryan, the astrophysicist leading the project. The device can visually display the location and direction of gamma rays, enabling it to scan vehicle and shipping containers from a distance.  According to Ryan, it can locate a radiation source within two-foot radius from more than 30 feet away. However, radioactive materials could still be shielded to make their gamma radiation invisible to the detector. “It'll work, but it's not optimal, given the fact it's so dated,” Nick Mascarenhas, a physicist developing a directional radiation detector at the Sandia National Laboratories in California, said of the nearly two-decade old telescope technology.  “It's probably going to have limitations.” Despite the project’s aging technology, it contributes to a wider investigation into the potential of image-based detection devices for tracking radiation sources (Eric Hand, Nature, May 10). Back to top

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