Diplomacy Works

Spiegel Online:

The six-nation talks with North Korea have made even more apparent progress: After Pyongyang turned off its working reactor last week, it also shuttered four related facilities and agreed to disclose the rest of its nuclear program -- including, presumably, its bombs.

Nuclear negotiators were in a sunny mood in Beijing on Wednesday after North Korea promised to shut down all sites in its nuclear program, days after it closed its only working reactor.

"North Korea expressed its intention to declare and disable (all its nuclear facilities) within the shortest possible period, even within five or six months, or by the end of the year," said South Korea's envoy to the six-nation nuclear talks, Chun Yung-woo, according to the Associated Press.

The UN's nuclear watchdog also confirmed to negotiators on Wednesday that North Korea had closed four facilities -- a radiochemical laboratory, an atomic fuel factory and two dormant construction sites for larger reactors -- in addition to the working reactor at Yongbyon. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement that its inspectors had sealed the facilities to make sure North Korea wouldn't restart its nuclear program.

Edging Back From The Brink

More potentially good news, out of Iran. From RIA Novosti:

Iran is prepared to consider the UN nuclear watchdog's proposal to hold direct talks with the United States on its controversial uranium enrichment program, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

Can we all calm down, now?

Guardian:

The UN nuclear watchdog said today that Iran had agreed to lift its ban on inspectors visiting a controversial nuclear facility, and was ready to answer questions about its past plutonium experiments.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said a deal had been reached on the designation of new inspectors, a visit of inspectors to the heavy water research reactor at Arak by the end of July, and the finalisation of safeguards at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant during early August. The plant is the focus of US concerns about Iran's nuclear programme.

Tehran insists it wants to develop an enrichment programme for peaceful purposes, but the US and EU fear it could enrich uranium for nuclear warheads.

Iran appears to have ceded ground following meetings this week between the IAEA deputy director, Olli Heinonen, Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator, Javad Vaaedi, and Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation.

Kill the messenger- particularly when it proves you wrong

Newsweek:

The most successful international team ever assembled to probe suspected WMD activities is shutting down this week—thanks to U.S. and British insistence. The team (the U.N. commission initially acronymed UNSCOM and then UNMOVIC) spent 16 years uncovering and destroying Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and missile weapons programs. The U.S. invasion of Iraq proved that the U.N.'s intel—overruled by the Bush administration—had indeed been correct: Saddam no longer had WMD. But late last month, the U.S. and British governments pushed through the U.N. Security Council a vote to halt funding for UNMOVIC.

The decision dismayed WMD experts. The action foreclosed discussions that were going on behind the scenes at the U.N. on whether UNMOVIC—or parts of it, such as its roster of close to 400 trained inspectors—should be retained to monitor biological and missile proliferation threats. "UNMOVIC is a unique resource," says Hans Blix, who led the Iraq inspections. "Once dispersed, that expertise will not easily be reassembled. But as ever, one has to understand the politics here."