Andrew Salmon, Asia Times: Kim’s initiative: The breakthrough the world has been waiting for?
North Korea has offered every precondition Seoul and Washington set for talks. But while the spectrum of opportunity has dramatically expanded, so, too, have the risks
The Korean Peninsula is arguably the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoint, but rarely – if ever – in inter-Korean relations has one side offered so much so swiftly.
According to South Korean officials who returned from two meetings in Pyongyang on Tuesday and delivered a press briefing in the South, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered a summit with the South and “candid” talks with the United States, while unilaterally freezing missile and nuclear tests during the anticipated negotiation process.
Most notably, according to the briefing, North Korea is open to denuclearization. “The North side clearly affirmed its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and said it would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons should the safety of its regime be guaranteed and military threats against North Korea removed,” Seoul’s delegation head and National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong said.
Chung and other officials are expected to fly to Washington on Thursday to brief their US counterparts.
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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 7, 2018
Can South Korea Really Defuse the North's Nuclear Threat? -- Patrick M. Cronin, National Interest
North Korea to Washington: It's Your Move Now -- Stratfor
North Korea's offer for talks: What's next? -- AFP
Is peace in Afghanistan within reach? -- Anish Goel, CNN
Can India ‘make China behave itself’? New Delhi bolsters defense partnership with Vietnam -- Vivek Raghuvanshi, Defense News
War reporter reflects on Vietnam’s will to move on -- Dan Southerland, Asia Times
Trade wars? Africa has been a victim of them for years -- Afua Hirsch, The Guardian
Stakes rise in Syria as Turkey clashes with pro-Assad militias -- Metin Gurcan, Al-Monitor
Wanted: A strategy for stabilizing Syria -- Michael E. O’Hanlon, Brookings
What Happens When Yemen Collapses? -- Gerald Feierstein, National Interest
5 Myths about Saudi Arabia's Nuclear Program -- Henry Sokolski, National Interest
Sergei Skripal: The story behind the Russian double agent found poisoned on a bench in an English town -- Rebeka Powell, ABC News Online
Russia Is Offering an Olive Branch, Not Nuclear War (Op-ed) -- Igor Ivanov, Moscow Times
How Putin failed to scare the world -- Roman Dobrokhotov, Al Jazeera
Merkel’s victory exposes Europe’s political fault lines -- Richard Ogier, Globe and Mail
Trump Says His New Tariffs Are About National Security. They’re Not. -- Tim Fernholz, Defense One/Quartz
