What North Korea told a U.N. envoy trying to prevent war

An opinion column by David Ignatius in the Washingtion Post.

On Nov. 28th, Ignatius emceed a panel discussion at the Washington National Cathedral re: nuclear weapons risks, including between the U.S. and North Korea. The panel and event -- held in honor of Ignatius's parents -- featured former Obama administration Secretary of State John Kerry. The event also featured former Clinton administration Defense Secretary William Perry.

Retired military leaders urge Trump to choose words, not action, to deal with North Korea

As reported by Anna Fifield in the Washington Post.

U.N. Secretary General on Korean de-nuclearization

CNN's Fareed Zakaria interviewed United Nations Secretary General Guterres on the chances for de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula, despite U.S. President Trump's provocative tweets.

Flynn Said Russian Sanctions Would Be ‘Ripped Up,’ Whistle-Blower Says [in order to build atomic reactors in the Middle East]

As reported by the New York Times.

While nuclear greed appears to be the motivation, the end result could be nuclear weapons proliferation in an already very unstable and violent region.

Michael Flynn's role in the Middle East nuclear project, that risked weapons proliferation, could compound legal troubles

As reported by Michael Kranish, Tom Hamburger, and Carol D. Leonnig in the Washington Post.

As the article reports:

Flynn, who was fired by President Barack Obama from his post as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, became involved in ACU’s project in 2015, as part of a group of former top military and diplomatic officials and nuclear experts the company assembled to help push its plan.

The idea: to build several dozen “proliferation-proof” nuclear power plants across Persian Gulf states. The plan relied heavily on Russian interests, which would help build the plants, as well as possibly take possession of spent fuel that could be used to build a nuclear weapon, according to people familiar with the project.

ACU’s managing director, Alex Copson, had been promoting variations of building nuclear facilities with Russian help for more than two decades, according to news reports. Copson did not respond to requests for comment, and ACU’s counsel, Don Gross, declined to comment.

But such a claim of nuclear weapons "proliferation-proof" atomic reators is a hollow, PR ploy. It flies in the face of basic physics.

As the prescient 2006 book, Insurmountable Risks: The Dangers of Using Nuclear Power to Combat Global Climate Change, by IEER's (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research) senior scientist, Dr. Brice Smith, made clear, nuclear weapons proliferation is an inevitable risk of nuclear power's expansion to regions like the Middle East (see Chapter 3, "Megawatts and Mushroom Clouds").