Nautilus Weekly June 23 - 27, 2008

NORTH KOREAN DENUCLEARIZATION: BEYOND PHASE II DISABLEMENT

Tong Kim, former senior interpreter at the U.S. State Department and now a visiting professor with the Graduate University of North Korean Studies,  a research professor with Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, writes, “Final denuclearization would require the normalization of relations between the United States and the DPRK… Any way one looks at the prospects of the six party process, it clearly has a long way to go yet with many difficult problems to surmount in the path.”

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NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR DECLARATION: WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT

Ralph Cossa, President of the Pacific Forum CSIS, writes, “Some have argued that it would make more sense to wait until the list is delivered and verified before restrictions are lifted, and they are probably right. Unfortunately, that was not what Washington promised. If we have learned nothing else about North Korea we should know one thing by now: While Pyongyang might not be too good at living up to its own promises, it will not budge an inch if it perceives that others are not living up to theirs.”

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APSNET TOP STORY: GLOBAL WARMING TO HIT SECURITY: REPORT

Global warming is likely to increase illegal immigration, create humanitarian disasters and destabilise precarious governments in political hot spots, all of which could affect US national security, according to an assessment by US intelligence agencies. The national intelligence assessment on the national security implications of global climate change to 2030 offer the consensus judgment of top analysts at all 16 US spy agencies on major foreign policy, security and global economic issue

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Climate Change and Security, Reframing Australia-Indonesia Security, Nautilus Institute

NAPSNET TOP STORY: PYONGYANG SUBMITS NUCLEAR DECLARATION

The Wall Street Journal after keeping the US and other countries waiting for 15 months, the DPRK delivered a description of its efforts to develop nuclear weapons, setting up the next – and more difficult – stage in an international effort to disarm and reshape the DPRK. DPRK diplomats gave a declaration of its nuclear-weapons program to PRC counterparts in Beijing who have been coordinating the six-nation talks. Under the February 2007 deal, the DPRK also agreed to disable a nuclear plant that provided fuel for its nuclear weapons, a step that's also nearly complete. On Friday, it plans to blow up the cooling tower at the nuclear plant and invited TV crews from several countries, including the U.S. and the ROK, to record the event.

Read the article here.