TOP NEWS Trump could kill the Iran nuclear deal on Friday – but he probably won’t Vox President Moon renews commitment to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula The Hankyoreh The Risk of a Nuclear-Tinged South Asian Crisis Is Rising The Diplomat Trump’s nuclear review will bring the US closer to all-out war, critics say Washington Examiner EAST ASIA President Moon renews commitment to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula The Hankyoreh 1/11/18 In a New Year’s address and press conference on Jan. 10, President Moon Jae-in shared his commitment to using the resumption of dialogue and improved inter-Korean relations to achieve denuclearization and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula. Here’s what the B-2’s Arrival In Guam Means for North Korea, The Olympics, And More The Drive 1/11/18 It was just a matter of time before B-2s stealth bombers would once again take up station on the American Pacific island outpost of Guam, but the timing of their arrival is especially impactful regardless of if the deployment was long-planned or quickly devised. Japan To Buy $133M Of Interceptor Missiles Amid North Korea Nuclear Threat International Business Times 1/11/18 The U.S. Department of State agreed to the sale of an estimated $133 million worth of interceptor missiles to Japan amid growing tensions in the Korean peninsula over North Korea’s nuclear war threats. The announcement comes amid the much anticipated high-level talks between the Koreas on Tuesday. MIDDLE EAST Europe urges Trump to honor Iran nuclear deal CNN 1/11/18 Senior European diplomats have urged the United States not to kill off the Iran nuclear deal, as President Donald Trump mulls whether to reimpose sanctions on the country ahead of a Friday deadline. Trump could kill the Iran nuclear deal on Friday – but he probably won’t Vox 1/11/18 Trump has to decide by Friday whether to reimpose the sanctions that had been slapped on Iran several years ago because of its nuclear program. According to the Associated Press, he’s not going to. That means the deal will remain intact. Saudi Arabia Intercepts another AL Houthi missile Gulf News 1/11/18 Saudi air defense forces intercept a ballistic missile launched by Iran-backed Al Houthis into the southern Saudi province of Najran. RUSSIA/FSU/EUROPE Defense chief sets sights on beefing up Russia’s nuclear triad with advanced weaponry TASS 1/10/18 “The main focus should be made on further bolstering strategic nuclear power. The share of advanced armaments in the Russian nuclear triad should constitute at least 90% by 2021,” he said at a Russian Defense Ministry meeting. U.S. NUCLEAR POLICY Cyberattack could lead to inadvertent nuclear strike, think tank warns NBC News 1/11/18 “Nuclear weapons systems were first developed at a time when computer capabilities were in their infancy and little consideration was given to potential malicious cyber vulnerabilities,” it said. “At times of heightened tension, cyberattacks on nuclear weapons systems could cause an escalation, which results in their use. Inadvertent nuclear launches could stem from an unwitting reliance on false information and data.” Trump’s nuclear review will bring the US closer to all-out war, critics say Washington Examiner 1/10/18 The Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is due to be released at the end of this month, but even before its official unveiling, a report on a draft of the policy document has some critics up in arms. OPINION AND ANALYSIS The Risk of a Nuclear-Tinged South Asian Crisis Is Rising The Diplomat Sameer Lalwani and Hannah Haegeland 1/11/18 The latest U.S. spat with Pakistan, initiated by President Donald Trump’s inaugural tweet of 2018, suggests that the recently revamped U.S. South Asia strategy may already be in jeopardy. The World According H.R. McMaster DefenseOne Uri Friedman 1/9/18 Why is H.R. McMaster so alarmed by North Korea? Why does Donald Trump’s national-security adviser insist—more vigorously than any administration official except the president himself—that Kim Jong Un must be denied the capability to place a nuclear warhead on a missile that can reach the United States, even if this requires initiating a military conflict with the North that could devolve into a cataclysmic war? “The War-Game Solutions Are All Horrific”: Diplomats Fear a Deadly Miscalculation On North Korea Vanity Fair Abigail Tracy 1/10/18 For the last several months, diplomats and foreign-policy experts had been agonizing over President Donald Trump’s reckless provocation of North Korea and its equally trigger-happy leader, Kim Jong Un. In recent weeks, however, the rhetoric surrounding the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula has turned apocalyptic. Punggye-Ri Nuclear Test Site: Significant Tunneling Underway at the West Portal 38 North Frank Pabian, Joseph Bermudez, and Jack Liu 1/11/18 Recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site indicates that the North Portal, where the last five nuclear tests were conducted, remains dormant and that tunnel excavation has been stepped up at the West Portal. Throughout December 2017, mining carts and personnel were consistently present around the West Portal and there was significant expansion of the spoil pile. North Korea’s Nuclear Program Distracts Us From Kim Jong Un’s Bigger Threats Newsweek Christina Cliff 1/10/18 Kim’s missile tests and big rhetoric are the equivalent of a magician distracting onlookers. We should worry instead about much more subtle North Korean threats. Why Trump’s national security adviser thinks it might soon be time to bomb North Korea Business Insider Alex Lockie 1/10/18 President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, seems to think the US’s military and nuclear supremacy over North Korea cannot deter its leader, Kim Jong Un, from attacking the US — and that a strike is needed to stop him.