TOP NEWS As U.S. Nuclear Pact Hangs in the Balance, Russia Makes Last-Gasp Bid to Keep It Alive Wall Street Journal South Korea Looks for Kim Nuclear Dismantling Pledge at Next Trump Summit Reuters Can This New Approach to Nuclear Disarmament Work? War on the Rocks East Asia North Korea Prepares for Second Nuclear Summit with U.S. NPR1/24/2019 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered preparations for a second summit with President Trump to discuss the prospect of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, state media said Thursday. As Next Trump-Kim Summit Nears, Japan Worries U.S. Will Leave It in the Dark New York Times1/23/2019 Mr. Abe, speaking in an interview Wednesday at the World Economic Forum, said he was confident that he was in sync with Mr. Trump on North Korea. But privately, Japanese officials and analysts worry that the American president will make a deal with Mr. Kim that leaves Japan vulnerable to a missile strike from the North. Trump Defends North Korea Progress as Second Nuclear Summit Edges Closer Politico1/24/2019 President Donald Trump on Thursday defended himself against complaints that his negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have yielded few steps toward denuclearization, saying ahead of a potential second summit that he sees “much potential” for progress. South Korea Looks for Kim Nuclear Dismantling Pledge at Next Trump Summit Reuters1/24/2019 North Korea must make concrete pledges toward curbing its nuclear weapons program, such as dismantling its main nuclear complex and allowing international inspections to confirm the process, when leader Kim Jong Un meets U.S. President Donald Trump as soon as next month, South Korea’s foreign minister said. Middle East Three years old, the Iran nuclear deal is fraying quickly CNN1/24/2019 Three years ago last week, the Iran nuclear deal came into effect, limiting the country’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. But in the wake of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the agreement, and with relations between the European Union and Iran declining sharply, there is growing doubt it will see its fourth birthday. Russia/FSU As U.S. Nuclear Pact Hangs in the Balance, Russia Makes Last-Gasp Bid to Keep It Alive Wall Street Journal1/23/2019 MOSCOW—Russia made a last-ditch effort Wednesday to counter U.S. accusations that it was in violation of a Cold War-era nuclear missile treaty, showing foreign diplomats some of a disputed missile’s hardware and divulging its purported capabilities. Russia Shows Off New Cruise Missile and Says It Abides by Landmark Treaty New York Times1/23/2019 MOSCOW — Senior Russian officials on Wednesday put their new cruise missile on display for a foreign audience for the first time, in an attempt to rebut American accusations that the weapon violates a key nuclear arms accord. Opinion and Analysis Can This New Approach to Nuclear Disarmament Work? War on the Rocks Rebecca Davis Gibbons 1/23/2019 The State Department plans to convene a set of multilateral working groups with 20 to 30 countries each to “identify aspects of the real world security environment that present major obstacles to further disarmament movement and to develop specific proposals for how those obstacles might be overcome.” Why is Nuclear Entanglement So Dangerous? Carnegie Endowment for International Peace James Acton 1/23/2019 Entanglement describes how militaries’ nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities are becoming dangerously intertwined. Implementing the Hedge Strategy in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review Center for Global Security Research Aaron R. Miles 1/17/2019 The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) continues and expands upon previous U.S. efforts to hedge against uncertainty in the technology and security environments Does America Still Need the Nuclear Triad? Popular Mechanics Kyle Mizokami 1/23/2019 The U.S. is currently working on replacing all three legs of the triad: bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and submarine-launched missiles. But before we spend all that money, one must look around and ask the question: Is this still the best way? In the 21st century, does America really need three ways to launch nukes? Special Interest How Close are we to Doomsday? We’ll Find Out Thursday. USA Today1/23/2019 The folks who keep track of the “Doomsday Clock” will tell us how close we are to midnight. Each year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a non-profit group that sets the clock, decides whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer or farther from destruction.