Morning Joe: June 1, 2009

DPRK Missile Test Sequel - Coming Soon

Stories we're following today:

 North Korea Preps for New Missile Launch? - Wired's "Danger Room" [link]

• According to news reports, North Korea may be preparing to fuel up another Taepodong-2 missile for a long-range test.

A New Red Line For Iran - Graham Allison in the Washington Post [link]

• The brute fact is that Iran has crossed a threshold that is painful to acknowledge but impossible to ignore: It has lost its nuclear virginity.

Change in the Air in Iran - David Ignatius in the Washington Post [link]

• As Iran heads toward its presidential election on June 12, there are signs that Iranian voters are embracing their own version of "Change we can believe in."

Pakistan and the Bomb - Bruce Riedel in the Wall Street Journal [link]

• For the past 60 years, U.S. policy toward the country has been inconsistent and mercurial, rife with double standards with Pakistan’s neighbor India. Increasing calls to “secure” the country’s nuclear weapons by force are far from productive—in fact, it’s making serious work with Pakistan more difficult.

The CTBT Debate Begins Again - Hugh Gusterson in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [link]

• On May 13, a small audience was treated to a preview of some of the arguments we will surely hear in ratification hearings when the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) staged a debate for and against the CTBT.
• What lessons can be learned from this preliminary skirmish in the CTBT ratification struggles?

Plant to Destroy Chemical Weapons Opens in Russia [link]

• Russia and the United States formally opened on Friday a plant in Siberia to destroy a huge stockpile of artillery shells filled with deadly nerve agents, more than a decade after alarmed U.S. officials first pledged to help secure and dispose of the weapons.