PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 22nd, 2026: Tehran Offers To Reopen Hormuz & North Korea’s New Weapon

It's Tuesday, the 22nd of September. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, a possible diplomatic development in the Iran war. Tehran is supposedly offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Hmm. Haven't heard that one before. Oh, wait. Yes. Yes, we have. But hope springs eternal amongst diplomatic folks. I'll have the details. Later in the show, North Korea says its latest missile test involved a new hypersonic weapon, as Kim Jong-un shows off another system designed to challenge U.S. and allied missile defenses. At least Kim is consistent. Whenever he feels like he's not getting enough attention on the world stage, out comes another missile. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. After over half a year of fighting, a U.S. blockade, and an almost complete collapse in commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is now reportedly, or supposedly, offering to reopen the waterway, and says it could do it within seven days. According to Reuters, a senior Iranian official says Tehran is prepared to reopen Hormuz if the U.S. eases military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports. The official also says that Iran's delegation in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly has been given full authority to revive diplomacy with Washington. Iran says it already delivered a proposal to the U.S. through mediators on the 16th of September. You know, it's worth pointing out that it's not clear just yet who within the Iranian regime leadership has authorized this supposed deal, which is an important point, since nobody seems to particularly understand who is actually in charge within the regime. But the fact that Iran is putting a specific offer on the table, supposedly, and attaching a seven-day timeline to reopening the Strait of Hormuz is notable, especially when you look at what's been happening in the Strait. Commercial traffic has nearly disappeared. Reuters reports that just two trackable commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Before this war began on the 28th of February, roughly 125 large commercial vessels were moving through the Strait every day, carrying oil, liquefied natural gas, and other cargo. The waterway normally accounts for roughly one-fifth of the world's daily crude oil and LNG supply. And the security situation does remain dangerous. Over the past couple of days, two more vessels were attacked while crossing the waterway in separate incidents. One was the crude oil tanker LR Stephanie, where two crew members reportedly suffered minor injuries. The other was the LNG tanker LR Stephanie, where two crew members was an LPG carrier called the Al Morya. Both ships were able to continue under their own power. So when the Iranian regime says it's willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in seven days, it's talking about restoring traffic through a waterway that has effectively been reduced to a trickle. The question, of course, is why Iran is making this offer now. And the answer is both that the regime feels emboldened by its ability to negatively impact the Strait, despite U.S. intervention, and at the same time, the regime is under pressure economically. The regime continues to view their leverage over the important waterway as their key strength. In addition, they've raised the stakes regionally by having their proxy, the Houthi rebels, go on the offensive in Yemen against the Saudi-backed government forces. That's created further instability within the region and in global energy markets. And that likely has convinced Tehran that now is a good time to push for concessions from the U.S. in order to gain relief. From the economic pressure, Tehran is now apparently using the U.N. gathering in New York as an opportunity to see whether the U.S. administration is keen to make a deal. The Iranian official who spoke to Reuters called the General Assembly a, quote, golden opportunity to return to diplomacy. Iranian President Mossad Pazeshkin is also traveling to New York, although Iranian officials say he's not currently expected to meet directly with President Trump. Now, at the same time as someone within the regime is supposedly talking about the U.S. administration, the U.S. administration is also talking about the U.S. administration is also talking about a potential deal. Iran's military warned just Sunday that any renewed U.S. offensive would trigger retaliation without restrictions. So the caveat with this potential diplomatic breakthrough, or however it should be labeled, is that there may not be a consensus within the regime over a possible deal. Confusion or competing agendas within the leadership ranks could still rule the day, or has been the case in the past. This could simply be another block and delay tactic, as the regime is now in a position to make a decision. So, in the meantime, Iran's military regime looks to drag this conflict out to the U.S. midterm elections. And there's another wrinkle here, because China now appears to see an opportunity. Now, I'll explain how China and the Iran conflict may intersect during the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York this week. Reuters is reporting this morning that Chinese President Xi Jinping is preparing to press President Trump on one of Beijing's biggest priorities when she visits Washington this week, and that would be, of course, Taiwan. Specifically, she is expected to push Trump to halt U.S. arms sales to the island. China is also reportedly seeking to stop deliveries of weapons that Taiwan has already purchased. Beijing is expected to invoke the 1982 joint communique between the U.S. and China, in which Washington said it intended gradually to reduce arms sales to Taiwan under certain conditions. As a reminder, the U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but U.S. legislation requires Washington to provide the island with the means to defend itself. And China reportedly believes that the current crisis in the Middle East may give it some leverage. According to Reuters, Beijing may offer greater cooperation with Washington on Middle Eastern issues as part of the discussions in New York. And that's where these two stories intersect. The U.S. wants the Strait of Hormuz reopened, global energy markets stabilized, and the conflict to dissipate as much as possible ahead of the midterm elections. As their most important trading partner, China has influence with Iran. And as just mentioned, Beijing wants something from Washington on Taiwan. It's like an episode of Let's Make a Deal without the charm of the old host, Monty Hall. For Beijing, the calculation would be straightforward. If China can help Washington solve a major problem in the Middle East, can Xi use that leverage to extract movement on the issue that China considers one of its most important national priorities? Whether President Trump has any interest in making that kind of trade is another question entirely. But as Iranian officials arrive in New York, supposedly talking about diplomacy, and Xi prepares for his meetings in Washington, well, there's an outside chance for some horse trading. Perhaps. All right. Next up, North Korea says it's tested a new hypersonic weapon with Kim Jong-un unveiling another missile system designed to complicate U.S. and allied defenses. I'll be right back. 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What initially looked like another pair of North Korean ballistic missiles splashing into the sea at the start of the week may have been Kim Jong-un testing a weapon system that his regime has now described as hypersonic. On Monday's PDB, I discussed how South Korea detected two short-range ballistic missiles fired Sunday from the coastal city of Wonsan. The launches came roughly three hours apart, with the first traveling about 280 miles and the second approximately 370. Japan's military said both landed outside the country's exclusive economic zone. At the time, though, that was about all we knew. Now North Korea is giving their version of events. State media says the launches involved a new weapon system of, quote, great significance. Pyongyang never explicitly called the weapons hypersonic, but the evidence appears in the images that the regime released. In KCNA's newly released photos, you can see two missiles being fired from mobile launchers. A monitoring screen beside Kim also identifies the weapon as the Hwasong-11MA. It's a system that North Korea has previously described as hypersonic. The hypersonic weapons are designed to travel at more than five times the speed of sound, and, importantly, they can also maneuver during flight, making their paths much harder to predict and giving the defenses protecting South Korea, Japan, and U.S. forces much less time to track and intercept them. Kim said that this development would strengthen North Korea's war readiness and give its enemies what he called a, quote, incurable headache. Still, there is an important caveat here. North Korea may be touting a major technological advance, but the real question is whether this weapon can actually perform the way that Pyongyang says it can. North Korea's newly released monitoring screen displayed a range of nearly 565 miles, an altitude of about 22 miles, and a speed of approximately 1.3 miles per second. However, Seoul said that the first missile traveled about 280 miles, and the second only approximately 370. In other words, North Korea is claiming a range far greater than either distance detected by South Korea. Seoul's military is now examining that discrepancy while warning that Pyongyang's claims, quote, cannot be 100% trusted. Thanks for that statement of the obvious. That does not mean Sunday's test should be dismissed. Even an unproven hypersonic weapon could become a serious threat if North Korea continues refining that technology. The apparent test also fits into a much broader buildup there in North Korea. The country has spent years developing nuclear-capable missiles designed to threaten South Korea and Japan, overwhelm regional diplomacy. And in recent weeks, you may recall our coverage here on the PDB of Kim Jong-un commissioning the Kang Kong destroyer and staging a combined live-fire exercise involving missiles, artillery, and drones. These displays are part of a familiar pressure campaign aimed at Seoul and Washington. North Korea has a long-standing habit of escalating against the South when it fails to get what it wants from the U.S. The difference now is that Kim is no longer operating on the U.S. It is now operating with that same level of isolation. As we've been tracking here on the PDB, Pyongyang has deepened its relationships with both Russia and China. Its partnership with Moscow has been especially consequential. North Korea has supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, artillery, and troops for its war against Ukraine. In return, aside from ongoing weapons technology transfers from Russia to North Korea, Putin's war has given Pyongyang something else of critical importance, real-time battlefield feedback on its weapons systems. That information has, in all likelihood, accelerated North Korea's ability to improve its missile and nuclear capabilities. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Tuesday, the 22nd of September. Now, if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, just reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free that is perfectly doable, just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker. And I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here, with a word about personal health and weight loss. Now, everybody's been talking about weight loss injections, right? Because the results have been so dramatic. They work by lowering blood sugar. They work by lowering blood sugar and reducing appetite. But what if you're looking to lose weight, and you're not interested in painful weekly injections, especially when you hear about some of those side effects? Well, that's why doctors created a weight loss supplement called LEAN. That's L-E-A-N, LEAN. 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