Top News Kim Wants to Denuclearize During Trump’s Term, South Korea Says Bloomberg Kim Jong-un to Host South Korea’s Leader Starting Sept. 18 New York Times Cuts to nuclear spending and special ops oversight: Expectations for new congressional leadership Defense News East Asia Kim Jong Un Vows Commitment to a Nuclear-Free Korea, North Korean Media Says Time9/5/2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula amid a growing standoff with the United States, his state-controlled media reported Thursday after a South Korean delegation met him to set up an inter-Korean summit. Kim Wants to Denuclearize During Trump’s Term, South Korea Says Bloomberg9/5/2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signaled a willingness to revive stalled nuclear talks, with South Korean officials saying he wanted to “achieve denuclearization” during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term. Kim Jong Un and South Korean President to Meet Again This Month Wall Street Journal9/6/2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “unequivocally committed to denuclearization” but feels constrained by international doubts about his true motives, South Korea’s national security adviser said Thursday after returning from a visit to Pyongyang a day earlier. Kim Jong-un to Host South Korea’s Leader Starting Sept. 18 New York Times9/5/2018 North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said he wanted to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons when he met with a special envoy from South Korea, the North’s official media reported on Thursday, and the two sides set Sept. 18-20 as the dates for a summit meeting between leaders of the two countries. Inside the spectacle and symbolism of North Korea’s Mass Games Reuters9/6/2018 For the first time in five years, North Korea is expected to put on a massive performance on Sunday known as the “Mass Games”. Middle East Iran’s Zarif says Trump to ‘abuse’ U.N. Security Council role to slam Tehran Reuters9/5/2018 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday of planning to “abuse” the presidency of the U.N. Security Council to criticize Tehran, Washington’s arch-foe. U.S. Nuclear Policy Cuts to nuclear spending and special ops oversight: Expectations for new congressional leadership Defense News9/5/2018 If Democrats take the House in November, expect the new leadership of the House Armed Services Committee to train a skeptical eye on President Donald Trump’s nuclear weapons plan and attempt to rein in the Pentagon’s actions around the globe. Opinion and Analysis Keep U.S. Nuclear Options Open to Avoid Using Them The National InterestAaron Miles 9/3/2018 Next year’s defense spending authorization bill includes controversial funding for the Trump administration’s plan to deploy a small number of low-yield nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. This is the first of two enhancements to U.S. nuclear capabilities that the administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) directs. Much of the debate revolves around the value and peril of nuclear options in deterrence and defense planning. Does the United States need the ability to employ nuclear weapons in a range of different ways, or is the generic ability to threaten nuclear counterstrike sufficient to reliably deter aggression? Does this kind of flexibility make nuclear war more or less likely?