The Trump-Kim Summit and North Korea Denuclearization: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

In a stunning and unexpected move, President Donald Trump announced last week that he will meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un—setting the stage for the first-ever presidential-level U.S.-North Korea summit. His announcement came after a South Korean delegation, en route back from Pyongyang, visited the White House, and told Trump that they believed Kim was “frank and sincere” about talking to the United States about denuclearization. After a year where breakthroughs seemed impossible amid continuous North Korean nuclear and missile testing, has South Korea managed to find an opening that might lead to denuclearization of, and peace on, the Korean Peninsula? Or are we simply witnessing yet another episode of North Korea stringing Seoul and Washington along, with the ultimate goal of breaking their alliance? The optimists’ fantasy is  that Trump could convince Kim to relinquish his nuclear weapons as a unilateral concession, while pessimists fear that Kim will tell Trump to take a hike, thereby cementing the path to war.

The Russian military has tested a new air-launched hypersonic missile that reportedly can travel as fast as Mach 10 over a distance as great as 1,200 miles, all while maneuvering. If those specs are accurate, the Kinzhal missile—a modified version of the surface-launched Iskander rocket—could punch right through even the most sophisticated NATO air defenses to strike ships, air bases, ports, and supply depots with a non-nuclear warhead.

The next leader of Saudi Arabia says his country would quickly obtain a nuclear bomb if arch rival Iran successfully develops its own nuclear weapon. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made the statement about a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East to "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell, in an interview set to air on this Sunday's 60 Minutes. The interview is the first with a Saudi leader for a U.S. television network since 2005. O'Donnell, a contributing correspondent for "60 Minutes," asked the 32-year-old crown prince about the political, economic, and social reforms unfolding in his kingdom.

North Korea’s nuclear build-up continues. Vladimir Putin announced on March 1 that Russia had developed new nuclear weapons—an announcement timed, no doubt, to one-up the US Nuclear Posture Review, which was released in February. Amid developments such as these, some observers worry that nuclear weapons are back, big time. The truth is that they never really left. Yes, total stockpile numbers have come way down from their Cold War high. But the strategic rationale for retaining nuclear weapons remains. That’s unlikely to change any time soon—so what can realistically be done to stop nuclear wars before they start?

After a year of complaining about the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), U.S. President Donald Trump finally resorted to threats. In January, he gave Congress and Europe an ultimatum: if they did not fix what he considered the agreement’s shortcomings by May, he would kill the deal. Trump’s chief objection is that certain restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program expire, or “sunset,” after 10–15 years. He has also raised concerns about Iran’s support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and various Shiite militia groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and has decried the absence of measures to address Iran’s ballistic missile program. These latter concerns are broadly shared, but Trump seems to harbor unrealistic expectations that the nuclear agreement address all of Iran’s problematic activities. In the rough and tumble world of international diplomacy, it is impossible to get a perfect deal.

Russia is preparing to conduct a number of ejection tests of its most powerful nuclear missile currently under development, the super-heavy thermonuclear-armed intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) RS-28 Sarmat (NATO designation: SS-X-29 Satan 2). Preparations for another ejection test are are currently underway at the Plesetsk space center, located in Arkhangelsk Oblast, approximately 800 kilometers north of Moscow, according to the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces General Valery Gerasimov.