SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2017, Issue No. 85
December 6, 2017

Secrecy News Blog: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

NEGOTIATING WITH NORTH KOREA: HISTORY AND OPTIONS

The alternative to military conflict with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program is to advance some kind of negotiated settlement. But what would that be? And how could it be achieved?

A new report from the Congressional Research Service summarizes the limited successes of past nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea, including lessons learned. Looking forward, it discusses the features of possible negotiations that would need to be determined, such as the specific goals to be achieved, preconditions for negotiations (if any), the format (bilateral or multilateral), and potential linkage to other policy issues.

See Nuclear Negotiations with North Korea: In Brief, December 4, 2017:

See also Possible U.S. Policy Approaches to North Korea, CRS In Focus, September 4, 2017:

AIR FORCE UPDATES POLICY ON SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAMS

The US Air Force last month issued updated policy guidance on its "special access programs" (SAPs) which are classified programs of exceptional sensitivity requiring safeguards and access restrictions beyond those of other categories of classified information.

See Air Force Policy Directive 16-7, Special Access Programs, 21 November 2017:

The new Air Force policy makes provisions for internal oversight of its SAPs, as well as limited congressional access to SAP information under some circumstances.

Notably, however, the new Air Force directive does not acknowledge the authority of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) to review and oversee its SAPs.

That's an error, said ISOO director Mark Bradley.

The executive order on national security classification (EO 13526, sect. 4.3) explicitly says that "the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office shall be afforded access to these [special access] programs."

Mr. Bradley said that ISOO would communicate the point effectively to the Air Force.

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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