Top News AP Exclusive: Iran hackers hunt nuke workers, US officials Associated Press North Korea Says U.S. to Blame for ‘Deadlocked’ Nuclear Talks Bloomberg Pentagon: NKorea slow to negotiate over U.S. war remains Associated Press East Asia Pentagon: NKorea slow to negotiate over U.S. war remains Associated Press12/13/18 Months after the White House raised hopes for bringing home thousands of U.S. battlefield remains from North Korea, the returns have stalled. Detailed negotiations on future recovery arrangements have not even begun. The slower pace appears linked to the more talked-about stalemate over North Korea’s nuclear weapons. North Korea Says U.S. to Blame for ‘Deadlocked’ Nuclear Talks Bloomberg12/13/18 North Korea blamed the U.S. for stalling nuclear talks as it volleyed its latest criticism on the state of diplomacy since canceling high-level meetings with American officials last month. North Korea moved ahead with denuclearization steps that were “excessive gifts” to the U.S. and the American side hasn’t taken corresponding measures, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said Thursday. Middle East AP Exclusive: Iran hackers hunt nuke workers, US officials Associated Press12/13/18 As U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran last month, hackers scrambled to break into personal emails of American officials tasked with enforcing them, The Associated Press has found — another sign of how deeply cyberespionage is embedded into the fabric of U.S.-Iranian relations. Russia/FSU/Europe Germany, US haggle over access to secret missile-performance data Defense News12/13/18 The United States and Germany continue to negotiate behind the scenes over access to a highly classified computer model that Berlin needs so it can build its next-generation anti-missile system, according to sources and documents. The spat, which is only partially resolved, is mentioned briefly in the German Defence Ministry’s newest report to parliament on the status of big-ticket weapon programs, released late last week. Russia ready to discuss inspections with U.S. on arms treaty: RIA Reuters12/14/18 Russia is ready to discuss mutual inspections with the United States in order to save the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, RIA news agency cited Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying on Friday. Last week Washington said Russia must scrap its 9M729 nuclear-capable cruise missiles and launchers or modify the weapons’ range to return to compliance to the Cold War-era arms control treaty. U.S. Nuclear Policy Senate Dems urge Trump to continue nuclear arms control negotiations after treaty suspension The Hill12/13/18 A group of 26 Senate Democrats is urging President Trump to continue arms control negotiations following the administration’s threat last week to pull out of a landmark arms control treaty with Russia. “We write out of deep concern that your administration is now abandoning generations of bipartisan U.S. leadership around the paired goals of reducing the global role and number of nuclear weapons and ensuring strategic stability with America’s nuclear-armed adversaries,” the lawmakers wrote to Trump in a letter delivered on Wednesday. Opinion and Analysis The new U.S. strategy to tackle WMD terrorism is new wine in old wineskins War on the RocksAl Mauroni 12/14/18 The White House released a new national strategy to articulate its approach to address the possibility that terrorists may attack the United States and its interests with weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Although one can agree with the need for a deliberate policy approach to guide interagency efforts in this area, one cannot say that this strategy is new, in either its assumptions or its particular lines of effort.