Top News North Korea postponed U.S. talks because ‘they weren’t ready’: Haley Reuters Democratic House Hurts Space Corps, Nuke Modernization, & Pentagon Topline Breaking Defense U.S. Blocks Russian Bid To Ease North Korean Sanctions At UN Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty East Asia US-North Korea nuclear talks are cancelled; move may be pressure tactic, analysts say Military Times11/8/18 U.S. officials told Seoul that it was North Korea that canceled nuclear talks this week between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a senior North Korean official, South Korea’s foreign minister said Thursday. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha provided no reason, aside from “busy schedules,” for why North Korea canceled the meeting set for Thursday in New York that was meant to discuss ridding the North of its nuclear weapons and setting up a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea postponed U.S. talks because ‘they weren’t ready’: Haley Reuters11/8/18 North Korea postponed talks with the United States on Thursday “because they weren’t ready,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said as she urged Pyongyang to implement a June deal between the two countries. Speaking to reporters before and after a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on North Korea sanctions, Haley said it is now North Korea’s turn to act. Senator Urges Trump to Ease Ban on Aid Workers Traveling to North Korea New York Times11/8/18 A Democratic senator has urged President Trump to allow American humanitarian aid workers into North Korea, despite a recent ban on travel to what officials consider a hostile nuclear state but also one of the world’s poorest nations. The senator, Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a letter dated Nov. 7 that he was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Trump administration was barring aid workers “from shipping supplies or traveling to North Korea as they seek to provide the most basic humanitarian assistance.” U.S. Blocks Russian Bid To Ease North Korean Sanctions At UN Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty11/9/18 The United States has blocked an attempt by Russia to ease UN sanctions on North Korea in what it claimed was an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation. But U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley on November 8 accused Russia of cloaking an attempt to lift sanctions on North Korea’s banking sector as a “humanitarian” gesture, and vowed to keep Moscow from succeeding. South Asia India slams Pakistan for expressing concern over deployment of INS Arihant The Economic Times11/9/18 India Friday hit back at Pakistan for expressing concern over the recent deployment of nuclear submarine INS Arihant, saying the comments come from a country for whom the “tenet of responsibility” does not exist. Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal, at a media briefing Thursday, said: “This development marks the first actual deployment of ready-to-fire nuclear warheads in South Asia which is a matter of concern not only for the Indian Ocean littoral states but also for the international community at large. U.S. Nuclear Policy Democratic House Hurts Space Corps, Nuke Modernization, & Pentagon Topline Breaking Defense11/9/18 The Democrats’ recapturing the House means three major impacts on the Defense Department: The odds are that controversial Trump priorities like new nuclear weapons and a Space Force will go nowhere, defense budgets will go down, and oversight will go up, up, up. The most likely losers are nuclear modernization programs, which leading Democrats like Adam Smith, the prospective House Armed Services Committee chairman, have criticized as unnecessary, excessive, and destabilizing. Opinion and Analysis Why China Is Worried About the End of the INF Treaty Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceTony Zhao 11/7/18 The U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty reflects Washington’s long-standing concern that the treaty constrained its ability to counter China’s fast-growing missile forces in the Asia Pacific.