Tag: Nuclear weapons

A Way Out of the A.I. Arms Race?

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Over the course of two harrowing weeks in October 1962, the world came within an eyelash of nuclear Armageddon. The United States and the Soviet Union were jockeying desperately for advantage during the Cold War arms race. After the United States stationed intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey, the Soviets, fearing a first strike, sought to station their own nuclear weapons in Cuba. The tense two-week standoff that ensued, the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly escalated into nuclear war. But it didn’t. Not only did the parties step back from…

South Korean President Calls for Easing Sanctions on the North

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Breaking with decades of policy on North Korea, the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, is now urging the United States to ease sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for an agreement that it freeze its weapons programs. “I believe there is significant value in a trade-off between sanctions — which are not particularly effective anyway — and a stop to the development of additional nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology,” Mr. Lee said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday. However unpalatable such a bargain…

Trump Courts North Korea’s Leader, but Might Need China to Reignite the Flame

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The overtures from President Trump to one of his favorite dictators came hot and heavy over the summer. In June, Mr. Trump posted a photo of himself strolling through the tropical grounds of a luxury hotel with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, during their historic summit in Singapore eight years ago. Weeks later, he wrote online that the two had a “very good relationship.” In that post, Mr. Trump announced that the American military would dial back exercises with South Korea, shocking the close U.S. ally and handing…

Around the world, people are rejecting divisive and dangerous politics. We can – and must – build on that | Gordon Brown

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Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is already having to make one of his gravest decisions. He has to issue the instructions that he alone gives to the military, setting out the UK response in a doomsday scenario of a nuclear weapons attack on us. He will, as I did two decades ago, sign a piece of paper telling commanders whether or not to retaliate and, if so, whether through targeting civilian conurbations or military sites. These instructions are written down in the aptly named “letter of last resort”. Now,…

China’s A.I. Play Is Different From America’s

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Early in the Cold War, even as the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a relentless nuclear arms race, they treated nuclear technology as a tool of soft power and diplomacy — something to share and export, a seal on alliances and a token of friendship. Thus Dwight Eisenhower’s America launched the Atoms for Peace program, which helped build civilian nuclear programs around the world, in the same year that it executed the Rosenbergs for giving the Soviets our atomic secrets. The Soviet Union likewise exported forms of…

China has detained US nuclear seismology expert since 2024, family reveals

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An American seismologist has been detained in China on espionage charges since 2024, his family has revealed, saying Donald Trump’s direct appeal for the scientist’s release to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, went unanswered. Youlin Chen – who has researched how to detect underground nuclear tests using seismological data – was detained on 5 November 2024, according to a statement from the NGO Global Reach, which is working with his family to secure his freedom. Global Reach said Chen’s arrest may be linked to the US government’s accusation that China…

Why China Fired a Long-Range Missile Into the Pacific

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With one missile fired over the Pacific Ocean from a submarine lurking off China’s coast, the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, has proclaimed his determination to build a full suite of nuclear weapons, including sea-based missiles that have long been Beijing’s weak spot. The missile test on Monday came after China’s military has been battered for years by mass removals of commanders accused of corruption and disloyalty. But Chinese media declared that the test showed the country remained on track to create a full nuclear triad; that is, a range of…

What does China’s long-range missile test in the South Pacific mean for Australia? | David Vallance

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At 12.01pm on Monday, a People’s Liberation Army Navy submarine test fired a ballistic missile into the South Pacific nuclear-free zone. This is the second time China has conducted a ballistic missile test in the Pacific in two years. Coming on the day Fiji became Australia’s fourth formal treaty ally, after the US, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, this test’s timing is interesting. It reads as a provocation at best, outright coercion at worst. It is not likely this was a spur-of-the-moment test. Even for a military whose sophistication…

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…