Top News Bolton says 2nd U.S.-N.K. summit will take place in ‘next couple of months’ Yonhap News Agency Russia Conducts Large-Scale Exercise With its Nuclear Forces The Diplomat North Korea’s Baby Steps Wall Street Journal East Asia North Korea leader sincere, must be rewarded for move to abandon nuclear weapons: South Korean president Reuters10/14/2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sincere and really means to abandon nuclear weapons, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a French newspaper, adding that the international community needed to reward him for that. North, South Korea to hold high-level talks on Oct. 15 Reuters10/12/2018 North and South Korea will hold high-level talks on Monday at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss follow-up steps to their recent summit, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said on Friday. Bolton says 2nd U.S.-N.K. summit will take place in ‘next couple of months’ Yonhap News Agency10/13/2018 U.S. national security adviser John Bolton has said President Donald Trump’s second meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un, will take place in the “next couple of months.” North Korea Needs to Keep Promises Thanks to Slump, Moon Tells Newspaper Bloomberg10/14/2018 North Korea’s economy is in such dire straits that the reclusive nation can’t afford to go back on a promise to Donald Trump to wind down its nuclear program, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in an interview with Le Figaro. North Korea intends to abolish all nuclear weapons, South says Reuters10/12/2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intends to abolish all nuclear weapons, materials and facilities to achieve “complete” denuclearization, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who held his third summit with Kim last month, said on Friday. Russia/FSU/Europe Russia Conducts Large-Scale Exercise With its Nuclear Forces The Diplomat10/12/2018 Russia’s Strategic Forces conducted their annual readiness exercise that involved the test firing of air-launched cruise missiles, aero-ballistic missiles, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles on October 11. Russia drilled for all out nuclear war — but a key element was missing Business Insider10/12/2018 Russia’s Ministry of Defense released a series of videos showing off nuclear weapons launches on October 11, but didn’t show a key part of its nuclear arsenal. U.S. Nuclear Policy Trump administration kills contract for plutonium-to-fuel plant Reuters10/12/2018 The Trump administration this week killed a contract for a project to convert plutonium from Cold War-era bombs into power, which it has said would cost tens of billions of dollars, after its supporters lost a legal battle. Opinion and Analysis North Korea’s Baby Steps Wall Street JournalEditorial Board 10/8/2018 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heralded “significant progress” after his weekend trip to North Korea, but it looks like that depends on how you define “significant.” The diplomatic atmospherics look good, and the bonhomie is nice, but there still isn’t much progress toward denuclearization. What would it take for North Korea to join the IMF? BBCAna Nicolaci da Costa 10/12/2018 At the recent UN General Assembly, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in was discussing North Korea’s strides to build relations and open up to the world. He said Kim Jong-un had even said he would be “willing to join the IMF and the World Bank and other international agencies”, Reuters reported.