Nuclear Proliferation

Iran will need at least a year to produce the material needed for a bomb, up from the current two or three months, the president says. But he acknowledges that those limitations will fall away.

In an interview with NPR, President Obama said once people see the nuclear deal in action, they will "recognize that whatever parade of horribles was presented in opposition have not come true."

The president tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that the U.S. and other countries have a solid plan to keep Iran's nuclear program under control.

A Defense Intelligence Agency report suggests that North Korea has the ability to make nuclear weapons small enough to put on a missile. That does not necessarily mean that North Korea has the capacity to launch a nuclear attack.

The assessment says such a weapon would probably not be very reliable. This is the first time the U.S. has concluded that Pyongyang's nuclear efforts have reached this point.

The U.S. and its allies are on one side of the table. Iran is on the other. The talks are set to continue Saturday in Kazakhstan.

Iranian envoys are to meet over the next two days with diplomats from the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China and Germany. No one is expecting a breakthrough though in the long-running confrontation over Tehran's nuclear enrichment program.

The hot rhetoric continues. North Korea says it will resume work at a facility that had been shut down after disarmament talks. The North now views its nuclear program as non-negotiable, experts say.

While he hopes diplomatic efforts dissuade Iran, the president also tells an Israeli TV network "I continue to keep all options on the table." Iran has denied it is trying to develop such weapons.

In his annual assessment of threats, the director of national intelligence also cited Iran and North Korea. He warned the spending cuts mandated under the sequestration jeopardized the nation's safety.