Toby Dalton and George Perkovich | Foreign Policy
The temptation for South Korea is understandable given its dual fear of attack by its increasingly assertive neighbors and potential abandonment by Washington, particularly if former U.S. President Donald Trump takes office again. For the United States, a South Korea with a survivable nuclear arsenal might shift the burden of dealing with North Korea and free up U.S. resources to contain China. But before jumping on the proliferation bandwagon, policymakers in Washington and Seoul should consider five critical questions that are being ignored today. The answers to these questions suggest that the imagined benefits of friendly proliferation do not clearly outweigh the risks.
Mark Trevelyan | Reuters
Russia appears to have suffered a "catastrophic failure" in a test of its Sarmat missile, a key weapon in the modernisation of its nuclear arsenal, according to arms experts who have analysed satellite images of the launch site. The images captured by Maxar on Sept. 21 show a crater about 60 metres (200 feet) wide at the launch silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. They reveal extensive damage that was not visible in pictures taken earlier in the month.
ALJAZEERA
Iran is ready to start a new round of nuclear negotiations, the country’s foreign minister has said…“If the other parties are ready, we can restart the negotiations during this trip,” Araghchi said. Iran’s top diplomat is due in New York this week to attend the United Nations General Assembly, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday.
Patrick Reevell | ABC News
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accusing Russia of using Chinese satellites to photograph nuclear power stations in Ukraine as part of preparations to potentially strike them. Zelenskyy made the accusation in an interview with ABC’s "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts on Monday during a visit for the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York. "The recent information is that, Russia has been using Chinese satellites and taking photos of the details of the objects on nuclear facilities," Zelenskyy told Roberts. "And in our experience, if Russia takes photos of certain objects, then there is a threat of strikes against the nuclear objects."
Reuters
Russia will not test a nuclear weapon as long as the United States refrains from testing, President Vladimir Putin's point man for arms control said on Monday after speculation that the Kremlin might abandon its post-Soviet nuclear test moratorium…"Nothing has changed," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who is in charge of Russian arms control policy, told Russian news agencies about the speculation that a nuclear test could be Russia's answer to missile strikes deep into Russia."As defined and formulated by the president of the Russian Federation, we can conduct such tests, but we will not conduct them if the United States refrains from such steps."
Héloïse Fayet, Andrew Futter, and Ulrich Kühn | Survival
America’s potential strategic disengagement from Europe is leading key European powers – in particular, France, the United Kingdom and Germany – to reconsider the role of nuclear weapons in European security in the absence of extended US nuclear deterrence. Here leading French, British and German analysts offer anticipatory assessments of their countries’ national perceptions, policies and preferences with respect to formulating a common European approach. They discuss, respectively, France’s tentative overture to its European allies, Britain’s willingness against broad constraints, and the tension between Germany’s entrenched caution and its rising threat perceptions. While there are options that could produce a viable European nuclear deterrent, they would require a degree of national flexibility and European financial support that is currently difficult to imagine. This reality check should give European nuclear hawks pause.