Tag: North Korea

North Korea is the world’s go-to proliferator of sophisticated and unconventional weapons and technology to some of the worst actors on earth.

Questions about whether the June 12 agreement signed by US President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un will, unlike previous broken promises, successfully lead to North Korean denuclearisation also have implications for Iran...

This Update deals with the possible ramifications for the Middle East of the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un in Singapore on Tuesday - with a special focus on how it might affect the efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program. 

Earlier this month, North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test. According to South Korea's parliamentary defence committee chief, the blast had the explosive power of 100,000 tons of TNT, making it four to five times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

But while most of the world has watched North Korea's increased nuclear activities with growing concern, one country has stood side-by-side with the North Korean regime throughout this entire time.

In the wake of the North Korean ICBM tests in the final days of July  - and the escalating international crisis over North Korea's provocations, with US President Trump again warning of "fire and fury" yesterday, while reports say North Korea has created miniature nuclear warheads that can fit on missiles - this Update features articles linking the current Korean crisis to the ongoing problem of stopping Iran from acquiring similar nuclear capabilities. It also includes an important piece on the policy difficulties of confronting Iran's regional expansionist efforts.

The spotlight has justifiably been on North Korea for conducting another test on July 28 of an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) which could reach Australia or most of the US West Coast. However a day earlier Iran also tested a missile, which received less attention, but which is equally concerning.

For the sake of the Australasian region, the North Korean nuclear threat must be contained. For the sake of the world, the Iranian nuclear threat must be neutralised, not only in the short term but the long term as well.

The Trump Administration is currently reviewing the North Korean nuclear situation, with the aim of generating a fresh approach to stop this determined proliferator. On his trip in mid March to Asia (Japan, South Korea and China), US Secretary of State Tillerson noted that twenty years of diplomatic efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear capability have failed...

After threatening Australia with a nuclear strike last week, North Korea has added yet another country to its target list – Israel.

While the Vienna Nuclear Deal (VND) reached in 2015 is focused on preventing (or at least postponing) the development of nuclear weapons in Iran, its restrictions are looser with regard to related delivery systems (particularly nuclear-capable ballistic missiles) and to the transfer of nuclear technology by Iran to other countries. Moreover, almost no limits have been placed on the enhancement of Teheran's military nuclear program outside Iran. North Korea arguably constitutes the ideal such location for Iran.