IRAN
Iran plans to build more nuclear reactors in quake-prone area
Yeganeh Torbati, Reuters – April 10, 2013
Iran plans to build more nuclear power reactors in an earthquake-prone coastal area, Iranian media said on Wednesday, a day after a strong tremor struck the region close to its only existing such plant.
NORTH KOREA
S. Korea steps up monitoring of N.K. missile launch
Kim Eun-jung, Yonhap News Agency – April 10, 2013
South Korea and the United States have upgraded their surveillance status to keep closer tabs on an imminent missile launch by North Korea amid escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula, military officials said Wednesday. Pyongyang is believed to have completed preparations for a mid-range missile launch from its east coast after it moved two Musudan missiles to its east coast last week by rail and mounted them on mobile launchers.
In U.S., South Korean Makes Case for Nuclear Arms
David Sanger, The New York Times – April 9, 2013
On a day when North Korea warned expatriates in the South to evacuate because the country was on the brink of nuclear war – a statement the American Embassy in Seoul dismissed as hyperbole – a prominent member of South Korea’s Parliament argued in Washington on Tuesday that the time had come for the South to build its own nuclear weapons.
Opinion: In bitter irony for China, North Korea furthers U.S. strategic goals
Paul Eckert, Reuters – April 10, 2013
Nobody but Kim Jong-un knows what he hopes to achieve with his saber-rattling campaign, but the young North Korean leader probably didn’t set out to aid the United States, the sworn enemy of three generations of Kims, at the expense of his country’s main ally, China.
Opinion: Sanctions don’t work on North Korea
Mike Chinoy, USA Today – April 9, 2013
A high-level overture from the Obama administration to Kim Jong Un is the one option that might slow or reverse the dangerous spiral of escalation on the Korean Peninsula.
MISSILE DEFENSE
Japan to deploy missile defense system in Okinawa permanently
John Hofilena, Japan Daily Press – April 12, 2013
Amid the increasingly bellicose rhetoric coming from North Korea and its threats of being able to strike Japan at any point it wishes to, the government will be deploying a missile defense system in Okinawa Prefecture permanently. Okinawa is the southern-most prefecture of Japan, and is home to majority of the US military presence in the country.
Poland moves forward with its own missile defense system
Warsaw Business Journal – April 12, 2013
President Bronis?aw Komorowski signed a new law on Friday that foresees the construction of an air defense system in Poland. For the first time, Poland will also build a missile defense system. According to the new law, construction of the system will start in 2014 and continue for the next 10 years. About 4-5 percent of the defense ministry’s budget will be earmarked for the purpose. Poland’s system will be integrated into a larger system managed by NATO.
U.S. approves final-year funding for Lockheed Martin missile system
Reuters – April 9, 2013
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has told his German and Italian counterparts the Pentagon plans to spend about $310 million to help fund the final year of development of Lockheed Martin’s MEADS missile defense system, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
