Obama Cites Progress on Nuclear Agenda

Interview with President Obama on North Korea and Iran - Reuters [link]

• I'm confident that the United States and Russia is going to sign a START treaty that institutes verifiable, serious reductions in our nuclear arsenals. 
• With respect to North Korea, we were able to institute very vigorous sanctions that are being followed by countries around the world. ... And I have to remind people that the expectations were very low when North Korea first started on these tests. 
• With respect to Iran, we have unprecedented agreement with Russia and the other P5-plus-1 countries putting an offer on the table to Iran that every international observer suggests is a fair offer, giving them a pathway for legitimate civilian nuclear energy use, but that makes clear they are not -- that builds confidence in a process that will lead to an Iran without nuclear weapons. And although so far we have not seen the kind of response -- positive response that we want from Iran, we are as well positioned as we've ever been to align the international community behind that agenda.
• So I would strongly argue that we have made more progress on this issue over the last several months than we've seen in the last several years. But it is going to take time. 

Obama Will Send Top Diplomat to North Korea for Direct Talks - Washington Post [link]

• Senior administration officials said Monday that Obama decided last week to dispatch Stephen W. Bosworth, his special representative for North Korea, to Pyongyang after months of "intensive" discussions with U.S. allies in East Asia over how to reengage North Korea on its nuclear program.
• Administration officials said the visit will focus solely on resuming the six-nation talks to end North Korea's nuclear program, using an agreement reached by the nations in 2005 as the basis for the discussions.

France's North Korea Envoy in Pyongyang - AFP [link]

• France's special envoy on North Korea, Jack Lang, arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, state media reported, on a five-day mission expected to include talks on the North's disputed nuclear programme.
• Lang told AFP last week he hoped to "start a dialogue" with the reclusive state's leaders, adding that Pyongyang's nuclear drive and the establishment of French diplomatic ties with North Korea would be on the agenda.

Interview with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev - Spiegel [link]

• The greatest nuclear potential is currently in the hands of Russia and the US. If we don't address this, there will be no disarmament. We have recently moved at quite a brisk pace, also because the new administration in Washington has made this issue a top priority -- in contrast to its predecessor, which appeared to be totally uninterested in strategic disarmament.
• Iran has the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, under the oversight of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- there is no objection to that. The country must only respect the applicable regulations; it cannot attempt to conceal any facilities. The discovery of the new plant at Qom is alarming.
• Theoretically, all options would still be on the table. I have spoken with Obama in New York about this. I don't want it all to end with sanctions. But if things don't move forward, such a scenario cannot be ruled out.

JASON Panel Offers Secret Nuclear Warhead Upkeep Recommendations - Global Security Newswire [link]

• Some of those familiar with the findings described the report as supporting ongoing efforts to extend the service lives of existing warheads, rather than replacing them with reworked designs.
• The JASON group found that periodic "life-extension programs," or LEPs, remain a viable means of keeping the U.S. arsenal safe, secure and reliable, sources told Global Security Newswire.
• "We believe that the report finds that current [life-extension] programs are working extremely well," said one nuclear weapons analyst who asked not to be named, citing the sensitivity of discussing a secret report. "There's no need for any dramatic changes in the programs or indeed a need to produce a new-design warhead."
• "It seems that the JASON report has knocked the legs out from under the argument that building new warheads is technically preferable to refurbishing the old ones," said another expert, Jeffrey Lewis, who heads the New America Foundation's Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative. "I would be surprised if the administration didn't put aside the issue of new warheads for the time being."

Obama Says He Wants to Visit Hiroshima in Future - Associated Press 

• President Barack Obama says he wants to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki sometime during his presidency but won't have time during this week's trip to Japan to go to the cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombs at the end of World War II.
• "The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency," Obama said in the interview, done Monday at the White House.

A View from the Dark Side

'Strategic Reassurance' That Isn't - Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal in the Washington Post [link]

• The Obama administration's worldview is still emerging, but its policies toward Russia and China are already revealing.
• Its Russia policy consists of trying to accommodate Moscow's sense of global entitlement.
• The administration has announced a similar accommodating approach to China. Dubbed "strategic reassurance," the policy aims to convince the Chinese that the United States has no intention of containing their rising power.
• No serious person would imagine a similar grand alliance and "special relationship" between an autocratic China and a democratic United States. For the Chinese -- true realists -- the competition with the United States in East Asia is very much a zero-sum game.

Japanese Missile Defense Matters - Brian Kennedy in the Wall Street Journal [link]

• Absent a renewed U.S. commitment to a robust missile defense for Asia, Japan will have to go it alone or rely on the aging U.S. nuclear deterrent. But it would be an enormous mistake for Tokyo to rely only on the threat of mutually assured destruction between the U.S. and China to ensure Japan's security.
• President Obama wishes for a world without nuclear weapons. China's growing nuclear arsenal suggests the world will be otherwise. Japan and the U.S. must be defended by something other than the potentially hollow threat of nuclear retaliation. A fully operational missile-defense system, which is well within the capability of Japan and the U.S., offers that and needs to be made a reality before it is too late.