Top News North Korea Is Looking to Build Trust, South Korea’s Moon Says Wall Street Journal Trump, Putin may agree to resume stalled arms control talks Reuters Iran Supreme Leader’s aide hails ‘strategic’ ties with Russia before Putin talks Reuters Pentagon report slams new US Strategic Command headquarters construction Military Times EAST ASIA North Korea Is Looking to Build Trust, South Korea’s Moon Says Wall Street Journal7/12/18 Moon Jae-in plays down concerns that North Korea is backing away from its denuclearization pledges Warner questions whether Trump take on N. Korea nukes matches intel NBC News7/11/18 The ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee is questioning whether President Donald Trump’s upbeat statements about North Korea’s willingness to give up its nuclear weapons are consistent with the judgments of U.S. intelligence agencies, according to a letter obtained by NBC News. Pompeo says North Korea denuclearization “decades long” challenge CNN7/10/18 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs is a “decades long challenge,” as President Donald Trump said Monday he remains confident Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledges to do so. White House thinks Pompeo’s North Korea visit went ‘as bad as it could have,’ report says Independent7/11/18 The US Secretary of State says his meetings with North Korean officials were ‘productive’ MIDDLE EAST Iran Supreme Leader’s aide hails ‘strategic’ ties with Russia before Putin talks Reuters7/11/18 A top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed his country’s “strategic relationship” with Russia on Wednesday during a visit to Moscow, part of a diplomatic offensive by Tehran as it braces for renewed U.S. sanctions. RUSSIA/FSU/EUROPE Trump, Putin may agree to resume stalled arms control talks Reuters7/11/18 When Donald Trump first spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin after becoming U.S. president, he reviled the “New Start” treaty – a pillar of arms control – as a bad deal for America. Trump-Putin summit: A history of tense meetings between US presidents and Russian premiers Independent7/11/18 From Second World War allies to nuclear foes, leaders of Washington and the Kremlin have sat down to decide the fate of the world on more than one occasion Will Trump and Putin Discuss Nuclear Stability? U.S. News & World Report7/11/18 The U.S. and Russia account for more than 90 percent of the nuclear weapons in the world, and these two treaties are key to preventing another Cold War. U.S. NUCLEAR POLICY Pentagon report slams new US Strategic Command headquarters construction Military Times7/11/18 Efforts to build a new home for the keepers of America’s nuclear arsenal has been bedeviled by cost overruns, design problems, mold and fire that has delayed opening of the new headquarters by more than two years, according to a May report by the Defense Department’s Inspector General. OPINION AND ANALYSIS Trump Has Nobody to Blame for North Korea but Himself Foreign PolicyColin Kahl 7/11/18 The president’s pivot to “strategic impatience” has made an already difficult task substantially more so. Trump should learn to live with a nuclear North Korea The Washington PostAaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky 7/11/18 If a workable peace can be achieved, it’s worth backing off from the preferable, but unrealistic goal of complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. Will India Nuclearize the BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile? The DiplomatJoy Mitra 7/12/18 New Delhi has to consider its deterrence requirements and perceptions in Beijing and Islamabad. The Surprising Promise of the Trump-Putin Summit Foreign AffairsMichael Kimmage 7/11/18 U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet for a frenetically anticipated summit on July 16 in Helsinki. Their encounter—coming amid cascading revelations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, unnerving questions about Trump’s admiration for his Russian counterpart, and U.S.-Russian tensions around the globe—is certain to be a media spectacle.