Secretary Clinton: Sanctions On A Nuclear North Korea Will Not Be Relaxed

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

The sanctions towards a nuclear armed North Korea will not be relaxed as the United States makes an effort to reinvigorate a non-proliferation regime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

“Current sanctions will not be relaxed until Pyongyang takes verifiable irreversible steps towards complete de-nuclearization. [North Korea’s Leaders] should be under no illusion that the United States will ever have normal, sanctions free relations with a nuclear armed Korea,” said Clinton during a speech in Washington, D.C.

Clinton emphasized that the message was not aimed solely at North Korea. According to the Secretary of State, the United States needs to set the example along with Russia to reduce both countries' stockpile of nuclear weapons, the existence of which, Clinton contends, has sent the wrong message to other nations.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which guarantees countries the right for nuclear fuel, will not be effected in the reinvigorated non-proliferation regime.

“This should enable countries, especially developing countries, to enjoy the peaceful benefits of nuclear energy, while providing incentives for them not to build enrichment or reprocessing facilities," said Clinton.

White House Morning Meeting With Robert Gibbs

President Clinton:
Former President Clinton will meet with President Obama and NSC/State department staff on the situation in North Korea and his talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
The White House will release a still photo from the meeting. President Clinton has had previous meetings with the NSC staff but not with President Obama. Asked if President Clinton would give remarks to the press at the stake out, Gibbs replied that he does not control who comes to the stake out anymore. President Obama has spoken with President Clinton only one time about North Korea which was when the two women landed in the United States on August 5, 2009.

Health Care: 
Gibbs described an over-reaction to what Health and Human Service’s Secretary Sebelius said was "based on many of your stories".
He said "we have been boringly consistent. Asked if this was a signal, Gibbs said " if it was signal it was a dog whistle we have been blowing for three months." He also said if there are other options/plans "we're certainly happy to look at those plans". Concerning choice and competition he said you may find yourself in a state or group of states where only one insurance company is active in the area and having the ability to choose between plans assures quality and ability to get insurance. 
Asked about car insurance he said that he is not sure that health insurance and auto insurance are totally analogous and that the notion of a public option is to guarantee choice in a market that
is closed to choice. In terms of phone calls, the President has made he has not made any calls either to liberals or lawmakers.

President of Egypt Mubarak Visit to the White House:
Gibbs said that there are responsibilities we see for them [Egypt]. 


Israeli Settlements:
Gibbs said that both sides believe we are making progress on the settlement issue. 


Guns:
Questioned about guns being carried around outside the event in Arizona, Gibbs said laws that govern firearms are state and local laws and that you "can't take one of those into an event with 
the President"

Lockerbee Bomber:
The President's position is that he should continue to serve his full sentence.

Chelsea's Clinton's Possible Wedding:
Did not say if there was an invitation and quipped, "Do you know where she is registered?"

Russia's Help Needed To Combat Global Conflicts, Says European Affairs Official

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

In the midst of a global crisis, two wars and nuclear threats, it is crucial that the United States reinforce its relationships with its European allies, especially Russia said Philip H. Gordon, assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Gordon's remarks came during testimony he issues in front of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Gordon argued that the United States should put its past difficulties with Russia "behind us to the extent possible." However, in a reference to last July's conflict between Georgia and Russia, Gordon said that the U.S. "will not abandon our principles or ignore concerns about democracy and human rights...We don't recognize any privilege sphere of influence for Russia in Europe [and] we will also continue to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia's neighbors."

"The U.S. and Russia can still work together where our interests coincide while seeking to narrow our differences in an open and mutually respectful way."

Said Gordon, "the greatest success we have in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the less there is a need for a missile defense system in Europe. If that threat goes away, the need for the system also goes away," adding that a nuclear North Korea and nuclear Iran also pose great threats to Russia's security as well.

Four members of the French Parliament were present in the audience during the hearing.

Introducing The New Nuclear Pandemic

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Americans should be more concerned by the proliferation of nuclear weapons from North Korea to other states or non-state actors, rather than focus on a direct N.Korean nuclear attack on the Western World.

Such was the conclusion of former Secretary of Defense William Perry when addressing the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on U.S nuclear weapons policy today.

“When we are concerned about proliferation, for example from N.Korea to Iran, we are concerned with the possibility that nuclear terrorists might be a bomb... The greater danger is that the bomb or the fissile material leak from one of these countries.” said Perry.

On Monday, N.Korea announced that it had successfully detonated and underground nuclear bomb, and on Tuesday, it launched two short-range ballistic missiles. As a result, the Obama administration may be facing an unexpected turn in the nuclear debate.

The topic is gaining momentum as talks between the U.S and Russia on the renewal of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) are feared to be unsuccessful.

That N.Korea has nuclear capabilities and is testing missiles has fanned the flames on the necessity to reconsider the reduction in the Department of Defense FY2010 budget.

Perry was joined by Brent Scowcroft, former assistant to the President for National Security Affairs who explained that “a great danger in nuclear terrorism lies with the civilian nuclear power and the loose fissile material that comes with that.”

Scowcroft appealed to the security dilemma to provide a link between N.Korea or Iran acquiring a nuclear power and nuclear terrorism.

“If we don’t put a cap on proliferation now, we could easily face 30 or 40 countries with that capability, That is not a better world,” said Scowcroft, adding that “If [Iran and N.Korea] are free to enrich uranium to weapons grade, then you have others who want to do it just for protection or whatever and then you have a tremendous danger of terrorists getting hold of fissile material and then its relatively easy.”

The U.S government had already started to deal with this problem under the Bush junior administration, as Perry explains: “For one thing I support the initiative of the previous administration called the Proliferation Security initiative (PSI) and the recent moves to strengthen this initiative.”

Former President George.W. Bush said that PSI’s aim is "to keep the world's most destructive weapons away from our shores and out of the hands of our common enemies."

The initiative is limited to controlling alien ships in one’s waters to search for weapons. Airways are however not part of the PSI.

North Korean Threat Not So Imminent?

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service.

Analysts for the Brookings Institution gathered to assess the North Korean threat on America and its allies in reaction to N.Korea's recent underground nuclear bomb detonation and the launch of two short-range missiles.

The think tank was pressed into discussing the matter following North-Korea’s acceleration in its military activity.

Pyongyang had already caught the international community’s attention in October 2007 by unsuccessfully testing a nuclear weapon.

However the threat posed by the North Asian state has reached new heights after N.Korea announced that it had conducted underground nuclear tests on Monday, followed by two short-range missiles (a ground-to-ship missile and a ground-to-air missile) launched from an east-coast base on Tuesday.

Michael O’Hanlon, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution warned that although “Their options are limited,” threats must be taken seriously, they must be mitigated.

Richard Bush, a Senior Fellow and Director for the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, confirmed that “They have a problem though, and that is that deterrence is not yet credible; their missiles don’t fly far enough and accurately enough, the weapons design is not yet perfect and so they need to test, that's the only way they can demonstrate to others that they have the capability to inflict harm on the United States and on Japan.”

If the production of the missiles is one leap closer to achieving significant nuclear capabilities, O’Hanlon explained that “The real issue is the size of the weapon and how deliverable it would be by the North Koreans, if they were to choose to deliver it some day.”

Additionally, “[The missile] has to survive the stresses of missile flight, which are no trivial,” said O’Hanlon.

However, according to the analysts, this does not mean that a threat is nonexistent but rather that the U.S should not be concerned by missiles coming from North Korea directly.

O’Hanlon said “I would say the most worrisome question is the sale of nuclear material because if they attack South Korea, their regime will end.”

O’Hanlon concluded that “The only thing they can plausibly get way with is the sale.”