Mutual Assistance.

Ideological slippage.

---

1. David Sanger:

In one of the starkest back-to-the-Cold War moments yet, Mr. Putin’s visit Wednesday to Pyongyang — and the announcement of a pact to provide “mutual assistance in the event of aggression” — underscored that efforts by the world’s three biggest nuclear powers to halt nuclear proliferation by North Korea had been dying for some time. Mr. Putin and Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, just presided over the memorial service.

Mr. Putin did far more than drop any semblance of a desire to ensure nuclear restraint. He promised unspecified technological help that — if it includes the few critical technologies Mr. Kim has sought to perfect — could help the North design a warhead that could survive re-entry into the atmosphere and threaten its many adversaries, starting with the United States.

Nowhere in the statements made Wednesday was there even a hint that North Korea should give up any of its estimated 50 or 60 nuclear weapons. To the contrary, Mr. Putin declared: “Pyongyang has the right to take reasonable measures to strengthen its own defense capability, ensure national security and protect sovereignty” — though he did not address whether those measures included further developing the North’s nuclear weapons. (Sources: penguinrandomhouse.com, nytimes.com)

---

2. A major expansion underway inside Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear facility could soon triple the site’s production of enriched uranium and give Tehran new options for quickly assembling a nuclear arsenal if it chooses to, according to confidential documents and analysis by weapons experts. Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed new construction activity inside the Fordow enrichment plant, just days after Tehran formally notified the nuclear watchdog of plans for a substantial upgrade at the underground facility built inside a mountain in north-central Iran. Iran also disclosed plans for expanding production at its main enrichment plant near the city of Natanz. Both moves are certain to escalate tensions with Western governments and spur fears that Tehran is moving briskly toward becoming a threshold nuclear power, capable of making nuclear bombs rapidly if its leaders decide to do so. (Source: washingtonpost.com)

---

3. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has warned that the Lebanese militant group would fight “without rules and without limits” if its conflict with Israel widens. In a televised address, Nasrallah also threatened neighbouring Cyprus for the first time, saying Hizbollah would consider the country “part of the war” if it allowed Israel to continue using Cypriot airports and bases for military exercises. The Iran-backed militant group and Israeli forces have been trading fire almost daily since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began in October. The speech comes as fears have risen of a full-blown war between Hizbollah and Israel, with belligerent rhetoric escalating and the Lebanese militant group this week issuing surveillance drone footage of sites in Israel. (Source: ft.com)