Nuclear Proliferation

[jreeves]

MarketWatch.com Story
The news triggered an emergency security meeting among South Korea officials and forced a temporary halt to trading on South Korea's main stock market.

News reports cited North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency as saying the nation had "successfully conducted another underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of its measures aimed at strengthening its self-defense nuclear deterrent in every way."

South Korean officials said earlier that it suspected a nuclear test had taken place after detecting an "artificial earthquake."

The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake of magnitude of 4.7 on the Richter scale, centered about 230 miles northeast of Pyongyang. The epicenter is in the same area where North Korea conducted its previous nuclear test in October 2006.

Trading on the South Korean stock market was halted briefly after shares fell sharply in the wake of the news. Stocks recouped some of those earlier losses to trade 2.5% lower by late morning. Japan's Nikkei index was 0.9% higher at 9,307.03.

North Korea's state media made the announcement around noon local time, or about two hours after South Korean officials detected the unusual seismic activity.

Pyongyang said in late April it would conduct more tests of nuclear devices and missiles.

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak had called an emergency security meeting to assess the situation, Yonhap reported.


US condemns North Korea missile test - Telegraph
Facing his first major foreign policy test since taking office in January, President Barack Obama accused Pyongyang of threatening the security of nations "near and far" and called for a "new approach" to addressing the threat of nuclear proliferation.

"This provocation underscores the need for action – not just at the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons," he said, before talks with European leaders in Prague.

What will be Obama's reaction this time around? What message is this sending to other potential nuclear players such as Iran?

 

[waltky]

Granny says dat A.Q. Khan gonna sell bombs to the terrorists...

Pakistan appears to be expanding nuclear site, says U.S. think tank
10 Feb.`11 - Report comes as India and Pakistan agreed to resume peace talks that were broken off by New Delhi after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a move that should help ease tensions in the volatile region.

Pakistan appears to be building a fourth military nuclear reactor, signaling its determination to produce more plutonium for atomic weapons, a U.S.-based think-tank said. The report came as India and Pakistan agreed to resume peace talks that were broken off by New Delhi after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a move that should help ease tensions in the volatile region.

The nuclear-armed neighbors have been under pressure from the United States to reduce tension because their rivalry spills over into Afghanistan, complicating peace efforts there. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think-tank specializing in nuclear proliferation issues, said it had obtained commercial satellite images from mid-January.

They showed "what appears to be a fourth reactor under construction at Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site," ISIS experts David Albright and Paul Brannan said in the Feb. 9 report. "Pakistan is determined to produce considerably more plutonium for nuclear weapons," they wrote. Pakistan's mission to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, was not immediately available for comment.

MORE

 

[uscitizen]

If we sould just neuter all those breeder reactors the nukes would not proliferate.

 

[waltky]

Pakistan develops intermediate range MIRV capability...

Pakistan Tests Ballistic Missile Capable of Carrying Multiple Nuclear Warheads
January 24, 2017 — Pakistan says it has successfully tested a surface-to-surface ballistic missile that is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and can hit targets with precision as far as 2,200 kilometers.

Tuesday’s maiden flight test of the Ababeel missile was announced by military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor. He said it “has the capability to engage multiple targets with high precision, defeating the enemy’s hostile radars.” Earlier this month, Pakistan successfully tested for the first time a submarine-launched, nuclear-capable cruise missile with a range of 450 kilometers. Officials say the "Babur-3" missile provides Pakistan with a secure second strike capability.

Show of force

Tuesday’s Ababeel launch is Pakistan’s attempt to credibly demonstrate its technical ability to defeat “all ballistic missile defense systems” India is developing, says Syed Muhammed Ali, a senior research fellow at Islamabad’s Center for International Strategic Studies. “This also indicates Pakistan’s scientific expertise to miniaturize its nuclear warheads,” he observed. Western critics insist Pakistan has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world, assertions Islamabad dismisses as “misleading.” Pakistani officials cite close defense and nuclear cooperation between the United States and India for reinforcing its nuclear deterrence capabilities.

An Ababeel surface-to-surface ballistic missile is shown launching from an undisclosed location in Pakistan.​

The Pakistani prime minister’s foreign policy advisor, Sartaj Aziz, speaking last week to VOA, again underscored the importance of maintaining “strategic stability" in South Asia. “We have been emphasizing to the U.S. that if you start your defense cooperation and arms agreement in such a way that disturbs our strategic stability, then we will have no option but to respond,” said the de-facto Pakistani foreign minister. The latest Pakistani missile tests come amid heightened tensions with neighboring India. Militaries of both countries until recent weeks had been engaged in deadly clashes across their disputed Kashmir border.

Pakistan Tests Ballistic Missile Capable of Carrying Multiple Nuclear Warheads