China says North Korea ready for talks

China and North Korea agreed "in principle" Thursday to reconvene six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. [via MSNBC]

Iran delivers nuclear report to IAEA

Iran delivered a report to the IAEA to allay international concern about its nuclear program, just a week ahead of a deadline to prove it is not secretly developing atomic weapons.

The report "fully discloses all our past peaceful activities in the nuclear field," said Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, who handed over the documents to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

ElBaradei said that the IAEA now had to "immediately start all our verification activities and to reconstruct the full history" of Iran's nuclear program. [via Yahoo]

North Korea May Consider Bush's Offer

North Korea said Saturday that it would consider President Bush's offer of written security assurances in return for dismantling the communist state's nuclear weapons programs. [via MSNBC]

Blog Update

If you have been wondering why I have not been posting, my family has been enjoying the beauty of Yosemite, and then dealing with the fires in San Diego. We are ok, as are most of my friends, but some co-workers have lost their homes.

Iran will not build nuclear weapons

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said his country would not build a nuclear weapon and would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a crucial deadline approaches. [via Yahoo]

North Korea to unveil nuclear capability

North Korea (news - web sites) said it was preparing to "physically disclose" its nuclear weapons capability."When the time comes a measure will be taken to physically disclose the nuclear deterrent," a foreign ministry spokesman told Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The spokesman declined to elaborate on the measure North Korea was considering. [via MSNBC]

Undeclared Iran Nuclear Facility?

National Council of Resistance of Iran, an exiled opposition group, said that Tehran has been hiding another nuclear facility from U.N. inspectors. The official gave no details about the site.

In August 2002, they broke the news of two undeclared nuclear sites in Iran - a massive uranium-enrichment complex at Natanz and a heavy-water production facility at Arak. Tehran later declared these facilities to the IAEA, which has placed surveillance cameras at Natanz to ensure that no undeclared nuclear activities take place there. [via MSNBC]

Israeli Nuclear Cruise Missiles, part 2

Israeli and foreign defense experts dismissed a report that Israel had modified Harpoon submarine-based missiles to carry nuclear warheads, saying such an alteration was technically impossible. [via CBSNews]

Russia delays Iran nuclear plant

Russia says it has delayed plans to start up a nuclear reactor in Iran by a year but has stressed it is for technical reasons, not because of external political pressure.

The construction of the controversial $800m Bushehr plant will now start in 2005, according to the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry. [via BBC]

Israel Adds Subs to Its Atomic Ability

According to senior Bush administration and Israeli officials, Israel has modified American-supplied cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads on submarines, giving the Middle East's only nuclear power the ability to launch atomic weapons from land, air and beneath the sea.

Israel will not confirm or deny that it possesses nuclear arms. Intelligence analysts and independent experts have long known that the country has 100 to 200 nuclear weapons. [via LA Times (registration required)]

Russian subs to be scrapped

Russia has dozens of decommissioned nuclear submarines rusting near Murmansk in the Arctic north - a problem that alarms its neighbors. Germany has agreed to spend $354 million to help Russia dismantle 120 Soviet-era nuclear submarines. [via BBC]

Washington Rejects North Korea’s Bid to Exclude Japan

The United States yesterday rejected North Korea’s demand that Japan be excluded from future talks on the Korean nuclear crisis. [via CBS News]

B-1 bomber upgrades

The B-1 fleet has had a $2.3-billion makeover, and more is in the works, transforming what was once a much-maligned relic of the Cold War to a workhorse of air campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The work, which can cost $5 million to $10 million per aircraft depending on the extent of the refurbishment, includes new wiring, radar and avionics, making the aircraft four times more capable of identifying and striking a target than its predecessor, Boeing executives say.
[via NTI]

North Korea: No problem making nuclear weapons

North Korea declaring it has solved "all the technological matters" involved in using plutonium extracted from nuclear fuel rods to build atomic bombs.

North Korea "will maintain and steadily increase its nuclear deterrent force as a self-defensive means to cope with the (United States') ever more undisguised threat to mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the DPRK," the news agency said. It was impossible to independently verify the claim because the country has expelled international inspectors from its nuclear facilities. [ via MSNBC, BBC]

Pakistan Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile

The Pakistani military says it has tested a short-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile. A spokesman says the Pakistani-built surface-to-surface Hatf-III Ghaznavi missile was successfully test fired early Friday.The missile is said to have a range of about 290-kilometers, enough to hit targets deep inside India.

North Korea says it's making atomic weapons

North Korea annouced it is using plutonium extracted from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods to make atomic weapons. When reprocessed with chemicals, the 8,000 rods can yield enough plutonium for North Korea to make five or six more nuclear weapons, according to experts. [via MSNBC, BBC]