Morning Joe: May 15, 2009

North Korea's Greatest Risk

Stories we're following today:

The risks of North Korea's nuclear restart - Siegfried Hecker in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [link]

• The greatest threat of a restart is that it may embolden Pyongyang to test another weapon in order to improve its arsenal's sophistication or that it would give it an additional incentive to link up with Iran in a troublesome alliance of nuclear and missile technology cooperation--an action that could further endanger Northeast Asia and the Middle East.
• Nod to Arms Control Wonk [link]

Law of the Sea? Nations Rush to Claim Seabed from Pole to Pole - Scientific American [link]

• The biggest land grab since colonial times is accelerating as nations scramble to claim writ over hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean floor, much of it believed to be rich in natural resources.

Pakistan on the Brink - Ahmed Rashid in the New York Review of Books [link]

• A well-rounded background on the crisis in Pakistan.
• See Johnson & Mason's "No Sign Until the Burst of Fire" if you are looking for a more academic approach to some of the systemic troubles of Pakistan's tribal regions.

Mohamed ElBaradei Warns of New Nuclear Age - The Guardian [link]

• "This is the phenomenon we see now and what people worry about in Iran. And this phenomenon goes much beyond Iran. Pretty soon … you will have nine weapons states and probably another 10 or 20 virtual weapons states." ElBaradei pointed to the spread of uranium enrichment technology around the world, but he was most concerned about the Middle East.