Trump’s North Korea Summit Goal: Lock in the Steps to Denuclearization
Michael Gordon and Vivian Salama | Wall Street Journal
President Trump will press North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to take his first irrevocable steps toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when the two leaders meet this week for a second summit in less than a year. A top U.S. goal is to persuade Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear weapons and missile programs while the two sides continue far-reaching talks encompassing denuclearization and punitive international sanctions.
Exclusive: Here’s the Tentative Deal Trump and Kim Jong Un May Strike in Vietnam
Alex Ward | Vox
A tentative deal between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be finalized over the next two days at their summit in Vietnam has emerged — and while it may still change, the current agreement looks like a huge win for Kim. For the U.S.? Not so much. Under the current iteration of the agreement, described to me by three people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues, the U.S. would agree to lift some sanctions on North Korea and improve ties between the two countries in exchange for a commitment from Kim Jong Un to close down a key nuclear facility.
After India’s Strike on Pakistan, Both Sides Leave Room for De-escalation
Maria Abi-Habib | New York Times
For the first time in five decades, Indian warplanes crossed into Pakistan and conducted airstrikes on Tuesday. But in the jarring escalation of hostilities, the leadership of each nuclear-armed country also appeared to leave itself a way out of pushing the conflict into war. In India, where election-year nationalism is fueling waves of anger over the militant attack in Kashmir that killed dozens of soldiers this month, the story line was of righteous vengeance accomplished. “We won’t let this country bow down!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a charged rally in New Delhi, speaking in front of a backdrop with the photos of the Indian soldiers killed by a suicide bomber. In a statement, Indian’s foreign ministry claimed that airstrikes near Balakot in northern Pakistan had struck “the biggest training camp” of Jaish-e-Mohammad, the group that claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, killing a “very large number” of militants as they were planning another attack.
U.S. Cyber Command Operation Disrupted Internet Access of Russian Troll Factory on Day of 2018 Midterms
Ellen Nakashima | Washington Post
The U.S. military blocked Internet access to an infamous Russian entity seeking to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midterms, several U.S. officials said, a warning that the Kremlin’s operations against the United States are not cost-free. The strike on the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, a company underwritten by an oligarch close to President Vladi¬mir Putin, was part of the first offensive cyber campaign against Russia designed to thwart attempts to interfere with a U.S. election, the officials said. “They basically took the IRA offline,” according to one individual familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified information. “They shut ‘em down.”
After Putin’s Warning, Russian TV Lists Nuclear Targets in U.S.
Andrew Osborn | Reuters
Russian state television has listed U.S. military facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes. The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. The report, unusual even by the sometimes bellicose standards of Russian state TV, was broadcast on Sunday evening, days after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban Missile”-style crisis if the United States wanted one.
Five Ways to Save INF’s Legacy
Ulrich Kuhn | Valdai Club
Not only in Washington and Moscow, many analysts and experts argue these days that the impending demise of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty forecasts the end of arms control in general and a new round of nuclear competition – with the big difference that the new arms race will be less about numbers and more about quality, and that it will involve China as well. But it does not have to be that way. There are at least five underexplored arms control options that could save the legacy of INF.