Top News Pompeo likely to meet N.K. counterpart in U.S. next week: source Yonhap News N. Korea unwilling to provide nuclear list due to U.S. hostility: presidential adviser Yonhap News China, India Reported Set To Keep Buying Iranian Oil As U.S. Sanctions Loom Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Russia’s Shoigu Warns Of ‘Serious Consequences’ For Europe If U.S. Quits Nuclear Pact Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty East Asia Pompeo likely to meet N.K. counterpart in U.S. next week: source Yonhap News10/30/18 U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is likely to meet with his North Korean counterpart in the U.S. next week, a South Korean diplomatic source said Monday, as the two sides push to arrange a second summit between their leaders. Pompeo said in an Oct. 19 interview with the Voice of America that he hoped to have talks with his North Korean counterpart “in the next week and a half or so” to continue discussions on the North’s denuclearization and the potential summit. N. Korea unwilling to provide nuclear list due to U.S. hostility: presidential adviser Yonhap News10/29/18 North Korea is unwilling to provide a list detailing its nuclear facilities and materials as long as the United States holds on to a policy of hostility towards Pyongyang, a security adviser to President Moon Jae-in said Monday, citing a top North Korean official. Moon Chung-in, a special presidential adviser for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs, said that he recently heard a top-ranking North Korean official expressing reluctance to comply with the U.S. demand that the North submit a list of nuclear sites and accept an international nuclear inspection prior to a declaration to end the Korean War. U.S. nuclear envoy seeks S. Korean help for successful summit with N. Korea Yonhap News10/29/18 The top U.S. nuclear envoy has asked for South Korea’s support to ensure a successful Washington-Pyongyang summit, the presidential office here said Monday. Cheong Wa Dae said Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok had “in-depth talks” with Stephen Biegun, the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, on issues including denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the build-up to the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Middle East China, India Reported Set To Keep Buying Iranian Oil As U.S. Sanctions Loom Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty10/30/18 With just days to go before U.S. sanctions take effect on Iran’s oil sector on November 5, Tehran’s top two customers – India and China — are resisting Washington’s call to reduce purchases to zero, arguing there are not sufficient supplies worldwide to replace them, media are reporting. Washington is reimposing the sanctions on Iran after having withdrawn from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Russia/FSU/Europe Russia’s Shoigu Warns Of ‘Serious Consequences’ For Europe If U.S. Quits Nuclear Pact Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty10/29/18 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is warning that Washington’s plans to withdraw from a decades-old nuclear arms agreement will have “serious consequences” for Europe. Shoigu told his visiting Greek counterpart on October 29 that the European Union and NATO should weigh the consequences of a U.S. exit from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which was signed by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. Putin wants to discuss U.S. exit from nuclear pact with Trump in Paris – Kremlin Reuters10/29/18 Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to discuss U.S. plans to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms treaty with Donald Trump when the two meet in Paris on Nov. 11, the Kremlin said on Monday. Trump and Putin plan to hold a bilateral meeting in Paris on the sidelines of events to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One. Opinion and Analysis Imagining a Post-INF US Posture in East Asia The DiplomatAnkit Panda 10/29/18 The INF debate with regard to China and archipelagic defense, once a niche topic of interest for just a handful of U.S. defense analysts, has suddenly sprung to life by the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw. The challenges to U.S. intermediate-range missile deployments in Asia shouldn’t be overlooked. How to tell if North Korea is serious about denuclearization Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsDuyeon Kim 10/29/18 Only certain actions should be understood as genuine North Korean commitments to eventual denuclearization when taken into context. Being able to discern which concessions are meaningful and serious will help US negotiators gauge whether to pocket them, and how to offer balanced tradeoffs.