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"I want to tell you that your fact sheet on the [Missile Technology Control Regime] is very well done and useful for me when I have to speak on MTCR issues."

– Amb. Thomas Hajnoczi
Chair, MTCR
May 19, 2021
Editor's Note
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Latest ACA Resources

Miles A. Pomper

North Korea’s October 9 nuclear test marked a setback for stability in Northeast Asia and for the global nonproliferation regime. This month’s issue provides special, comprehensive coverage of this event and its aftermath.

Robert L. Gallucci and Michael J. Green, two former top U.S. officials with extensive experience dealing with North Korea, offer their respective views on how U.S. policymakers can limit the damage and eventually convince Pyongyang to part with its nuclear weapons program. Richard L. Garwin and Frank N. von Hippel provide an authoritative and independent technical analysis of the test and what it says about North Korea’s current nuclear capabilities and future intentions. Harold Smith explains how nuclear forensics might play a role in backing President George W. Bush’s warning to North Korea not to provide its nuclear material to other countries or terrorists. In addition, our news section includes extended coverage of the test and its diplomatic and other consequences.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council also is seeking to respond to Iran’s failure to suspend its uranium-enrichment program after the council demanded that it do so. Joseph Cirincione warns that time is running out for a peaceful solution to this crisis and provides suggestions on how a deal could be crafted to reassure other countries that Iran’s nuclear program will not be used for weapons.

The dilemmas that the international community has faced in dealing with Iran’s program have also revived interest in proposals to bring under multilateral control certain sensitive nuclear technologies, such as uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing, that have both civilian and military applications. Our news section this month carries an extensive news analysis by international correspondent Oliver Meier on the issue.

Meier also provides a detailed look at the politics and issues that will play out at the Sixth Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference, which is set to begin later this month. Other news stories touch on the Bush administration’s release of a new space policy, congressional resistance to Pentagon initiatives affecting U.S. nuclear forces, and efforts by Russia to craft a new civilian nuclear relationship with the United States.

In our “Looking Back” section this month, James P. Thomas examines revelations about the environmental and health damage caused by plutonium production for nuclear weapons at the Hanford reservation in Washington State. Those revelations 20 years ago should provide a warning to countries such as North Korea pursuing new nuclear weapons programs: Such weapons can threaten not only your enemies but your own country as well.