Tag: Nuclear weapons

A ‘Miraculous Transformation’: How Kim Jong-un Fortified North Korea

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During the pandemic, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who had long billed himself as invincible, made a stunning, teary-eyed apology on national television. “I am really sorry,” he said, as the coronavirus, coupled with food shortages and international sanctions, was ravaging his country. “My efforts and sincerity have not been sufficient enough to rid our people of the difficulties in their life.” But while ordinary North Koreans were suffering, Mr. Kim, 42, seized the crisis as a unique opportunity. Now, he is brimming with confidence. He is recognized at…

What To Know as China’s Xi Jinping Heads to North Korea

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The last time China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, traveled to North Korea, that country’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, was reeling from sanctions and failed nuclear talks with the United States. Now, nearly seven years later, as Mr. Xi returns to North Korea on Monday, he will meet with a leader who is newly emboldened by an alliance with Russia that has helped his economy break out of isolation. Mr. Xi is expected to use the two-day summit with Mr. Kim to project a united front between allies against the West. But…

Why the Trump-Xi Summit Matters, Even if Little Seems to Come of It

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President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, are scheduled to meet in Beijing this week for a high-stakes summit that could shape the next stage of rivalry between the world’s two major powers. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi are expected to discuss the war in Iran, trade, Taiwan and other points of contention during a two-day summit beginning on Thursday. Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi last met in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a bruising trade war in which the U.S. imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese…

US accuses China of ‘massively’ expanding nuclear arsenal amid fears of new arms race

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The US has accused China of dramatically expanding its nuclear arsenal, while doubling down on claims that Beijing had conducted secret nuclear tests. Washington said the lapsing of New Start – the last treaty between top nuclear powers the US and Russia – earlier this month presented the possibility of striking a “better agreement” that included Beijing. Christopher Yeaw, the US assistant secretary of state for arms control and non-proliferation, told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that New Start had been seriously flawed and “did not account for the…

What a Speech Reveals About Trump’s Plans for Nuclear Weapons

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Within hours of the expiration last week of thefinal arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington, the State Department sent its top arms diplomat, Thomas G. DiNanno, to Geneva to lay out Washington’s vision for the future. His public address envisioned a future filled with waves of nuclear arms buildups and test detonations. The views of President Trump’s administration articulated in Mr. DiNanno’s speech represent a stark break with decades of federal policy. In particular, deep in the speech, he describes a U.S. rationale for going its own way on…

Treaties to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons are failing | Letters

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Simon Tisdall is absolutely right (China is leading the charge to nuclear Armageddon – and Starmer barely noticed, 1 February). From our prime minister to the person in the street, no one is talking about nuclear weapons, yet nuclear weapons states are busy modernising their arsenals and, in China’s case, increasing the numbers. Treaties supposed to limit nuclear proliferation have failed or are failing. Concern about this in civil society is minimal, and in parliament only a few of us address it as a matter of urgency. I can understand…

Expiry of nuclear weapons pact between US and Russia risks new arms race

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The New Start treaty between the US and Russia will expire on Thursday, removing the last remaining mutual limits on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals. The milestone will be a death knell for more than five decades of arms control at a time of surging global instability, contributing to a general collapse of the rules-based international order established after the second world war. “This is a new moment, a new reality – we are ready for it,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Russian news agencies during a…

China is leading the charge to nuclear Armageddon – and Starmer barely noticed | Simon Tisdall

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Keir Starmer’s tentative pivot to the Dragon Throne has played well in Beijing, though not in Trumpland. That’s partly because, like other needy western leaders, Britain’s prime minister did not dwell on awkward subjects such as human rights abuses, the Jimmy Lai travesty, spying and Taiwan. But in talks with President Xi Jinping, one vital issue was avoided altogether and should not have been: China’s dangerous, unexplained, secretive and rapid buildup of nuclear weapons. More than the climate crisis, global hunger, Kaiser Trump’s Prussian militarism and the ever prevalent threat…

Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight amid threats from climate crisis and AI

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Planet closer to destruction as Russia, China and US become more aggressive and nationalistic, says advocacy group Earth is closer than it has ever been to destruction as Russia, China, the US and other countries become “increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic”, a science-oriented advocacy group said on Tuesday as it advanced its Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds until midnight. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist members had an initial demonstration on Friday and then announced their results on Tuesday. Continue reading… The Guardian