TOP NEWS North Korea to Send Delegation to Winter Olympics, Commits to Military Talks Wall Street Journal Iran Hints at Rift With Atomic Agency if U.S. Quits Nuclear Deal New York Times Someone Left a Hatch Open and Crippled India’s $2.9 Billion Submarine Popular Mechanics EAST ASIA North Korea to Send Delegation to Winter Olympics, Commits to Military Talks Wall Street Journal 1/9/2018 South Korea sought unsuccessfully to raise the North’s nuclear program during bilateral talks, but the two sides reached a deal for Pyongyang to participate in next month’s Winter Olympics and agreed to hold military talks, providing a small opening to the stalemate on the peninsula. North Korea says weapons are only aimed at the US, not China or Russia CNBC 1/9/2018 “North Korea’s weapons are only aimed at the United States, not our brethren, China or Russia,” said Ri Son Gwon, head of North Korea’s delegation at the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years. MIDDLE EAST Iran Hints at Rift With Atomic Agency if U.S. Quits Nuclear Deal New York Times 1/8/2018 Iran’s top nuclear official said Monday that his country might rethink its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if President Trump scrapped American participation in the 2015 agreement limiting Iranian nuclear activities. RUSSIA/FSU/EUROPE Top Russian nuclear weapons designer Avrorin dies at 85 AP 1/9/2018 Yevgeny Avrorin, a renowned nuclear physicist who played an important role in developing Russia’s atomic weapons, has died. He was 85. SOUTH ASIA Someone Left a Hatch Open and Crippled India’s $2.9 Billion Submarine Popular Mechanics 1/8/2018 India’s first ballistic missile submarine was out of commission for ten months after someone neglected to properly close a hatch. OPINION AND ANALYSIS Trump’s military option for North Korea is not an option Washington Post Jennifer Rubin 1/8/2018 A military option is quite simply not an option, and both the Trump administration and Congress should stop pretending that it is. To the contrary, Congress and responsible voices outside the administration need to make clear just how unacceptable and devastating war would be. How the Olympics Could Help Defuse the North Korea Crisis The Atlantic Robert Carlin and Joel Wit 1/8/2018 While many pundits have portrayed Kim’s initiative as an effort to drive a wedge between a United States intent on pressuring North Korea and a South Korea convinced that dialogue will lower tensions, it’s also possible to view Kim’s recent opening as an opportunity. Unrest Shows the Iran Nuclear Deal’s Value, Not Its Danger New York Times 1/9/2018 It’s more plausible that by raising expectations for a better life, the deal opened Iranians’ eyes and made them less tolerant when the government fell short. European nuclear deterrence in the era of Putin and Trump Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Felix Wimmer 1/8/2018 Even if the United States removes its nuclear weapons from Europe, European leaders most likely will not allow European nuclear deterrence to end. They will be prepared to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent, with or without the United States. Call it the “Eurodeterrent.” It’s Time to Bomb North Korea Foreign Policy Edward Luttwak 1/8/2018 For now, it seems clear that U.S. military authorities have foreclosed a pre-emptive military option. But the United States could still spare the world the vast dangers of a North Korea with nuclear-armed long-range missiles if it acts in the remaining months before they become operational.