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KOREA ON HIS MIND: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is back in Washington after some brief and puzzling encounters with his North Korean counterpart at the annual conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore. It all started friendly enough with a handshake photo tweeted out by Pompeo on his official Twitter account “I had the chance to speak with my #DPRK counterpart FM Ri Yong Ho @asean today. We had a quick, polite exchange. Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver @Potus reply to Chairman Kim’s letter,” Pompeo tweeted Saturday. But no sooner had Pompeo departed for Indonesia on the next leg of his trip, than Ri denounced U.S. calls for the world to maintain sanctions pressure as being inconsistent with Trump’s position on the ongoing bilateral denuclearization talks, and demanded “confidence-building” measures in return for the steps North Korea has taken, including as the moratorium on nuclear and missile testing, the dismantlement of a missile facility, and the return of remains from the Korean War. “The United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against [North Korea] and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Ri said. On the flight back to Washington, Pompeo said he would not discuss what he might be able to offer North Korea, but insisted sanctions will remain for now. Asked if a “phased approach” was a “nonstarter,” Pompeo said, “We’re working our way through it.” But Pompeo underscored that Ri also made clear North Korea’s continued commitment to denuclearize. “Put the comments aside for a minute. The mission statement’s very clear. The U.N. Security Council has said they must end their nuclear program and their ballistic missile program.” A MASTER CLASS: National security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that the Trump administration has no unrealistic expectations about the possibility of North Korea denuclearization after just one meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the president. “There’s nobody in this administration starry-eyed about the prospects of North Korea actually denuclearizing,” Bolton told “Fox News Sunday.” “The president is giving Kim Jong Un a master class in how to hold a door open for somebody, and if the North Koreans can’t figure out how to walk through it, even the president’s fiercest critics will not be able to say it’s because he didn’t open it wide enough.” As for Bolton’s previous prediction that North Korea could dismantle its nuclear program in one year, “It comes from Kim Jong Un. That if they make a strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons, they can do it within a year. We are waiting to see evidence that in fact that strategic decision has been made,” Bolton told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “Kim Jong Un promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom on April 27 that he would do it and that he would do it within a year.” In an interview with Channel NewsAsia in Singapore on Friday, Pompeo said Kim will ultimately determine the timeline for denuclearization, and argued the “world should be less nervous” because “we were in a very different place with frequent missile launches and nuclear testing taking place.” NORTH KOREA’S TRACK RECORD ON REMAINS: North Korea’s tactics of delaying and deceiving have been central to its diplomacy for decades, including charges of trying to pass off animal bones as war remains in 2011. Forensic anthropologists with the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will now weigh whether the North’s latest concession to Trump this week of returning U.S. service members’ remains from the Korean War is what it appears to be. The agency says the regime’s record on the most recent returns of U.S. troops is good. In 2007, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi negotiated the North’s handover of six boxes of remains. “Out of those six boxes, seven identifications have been made,” said Kelly McKeague, DPAA director. The U.K. had a different experience in 2011, when it was seeking to thaw relations with the North. As part of the diplomacy effort, the regime turned over what it said were the remains of a British fighter pilot who was shot down during the Korean War. Lab tests showed that the remains were actually animal bones, and the U.K. government reportedly kept the embarrassing revelation quiet for years. Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten). David Brown is out this week. Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense. |
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HAPPENING TODAY: The Trump administration is following through with its threats to re-impose sanctions that were eased by former President Barack Obama in 2015 and after the U.S and five world powers signed a nuclear deal with Iran. This is the first of two sets of sanctions that Trump is ordering after pulling the U.S. out of the agreement, which he called a “horrible one-sided horror show.” Sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sector and central bank are to be re-imposed in early November. “I hope it works out well with Iran,” Trump told a crowd at a Florida rally last week. “I have a feeling they’ll be talking to us pretty soon. And maybe not and that’s OK, too.” Trump said last week he would be willing to meet one-on-one with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. On Saturday as he headed to a rally in Ohio, Trump tweeted, “Iran, and it’s [sic] economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it doesn’t matter – it is up to them!” Speaking to reporters traveling with him, Pompeo called the Iranian leadership “bad actors” and said it’s time for them to “behave like a normal country.” “We’re very hopeful that we can find a way to move forward, but it’s going to require enormous change on the part of the Iranian regime. They’ve got to – well, they’ve got to behave like a normal country. That’s the ask. It’s pretty simple,” Pompeo said. TURKEY’S TIT FOR TAT: The U.S. is also using the sanctions targeting Turkey’s interior and justice ministers to pressure the NATO ally to release American pastor Andrew Brunson, and so far Turkey’s response is defiance. On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would return the favor, freezing the assets of “America’s justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any.” Last week the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul. The move is largely symbolic, since it’s unclear what officials Turkey is targeting, and whether they would in fact have any assets in Turkey. The U.S. and Turkish Cabinets don’t have the same structure, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen seem most analogous, as Turkey’s interior ministry handles domestic security. “Going to get pastor Brunson home, that’s the mission,” Pompeo said yesterday. “We should also remember every time we talk about pastor Brunson there are other Americans still being held as well. We are as determined to get them home as we are pastor Brunson.” U.S. HAS NOT FORGOTTEN: Writing in the Washington Post, A. Wess Mitchell, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs pushed back against criticism that in focusing on Brunson, the Trump administration is not doing enough to help those other U.S. citizens and employees wrongfully imprisoned in Turkey. “Let’s set the record straight: While media attention has focused on Mr. Brunson, the U.S. government consistently has pushed — at the highest levels of our bilateral engagement — for the release of all U.S. citizens and U.S. mission employees wrongfully detained since Turkey’s state of emergency began in July 2016,” Mitchell writes. “State Department officials have discussed this publicly and privately. I have personally met with our local staff and the spouses of those who’ve been unjustly detained” NDAA WAITING FOR TRUMP: When will he sign it? Congress wrapped up the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act last week with a final vote in the Senate. Now the $717 billion bill has to be signed into law by Trump, who could choose to put pen to paper any day after the NDAA makes the trip from Capitol Hill to the White House. The legislation authorizes ship, aircraft and troop numbers and includes provisions beefing up defenses against Russia, suspending F-35 joint strike fighter sales to Turkey, and prohibiting Chinese telecoms from doing business with the U.S. government. HEAVY CASUALTIES IN AFGHANISTAN: Three Czech NATO soldiers were killed and one U.S. service member was injured Sunday morning during a suicide attack in Afghanistan, according to multiple reports. “Their sacrifice will endure in both our hearts and history, and further strengthen our resolve,” U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, the Resolute Support and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander, added in a written statement. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis also took to Twitter to remember the fallen soldiers as heroes. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack as militants are fighting for the restoration of strict Islamic law, a spokesman told Reuters. The bombing follows a U.S. soldier being killed in southern Afghanistan in July during a suspected insider attack. In a separate attack, more than 40 Afghan soldiers were reported killed early Sunday when Taliban fighters overran their positions in southern Uruzgan province. METEOR OVER THULE: Reports of a large meteor over the remote Thule Air Base in Greenland cause a flash of media attention on Friday. But the actual incident on July 25 might have been little more than a flash itself. The Air Force said Friday that there was no damage to the base, which monitors missile launches and space activity. The fireball incident occurred just miles from Thule and entered the atmosphere with a 2.1 kiloton force, according to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Two kiloton, that is sort of a very low-yield nuclear weapon level,” said Hans Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, who highlighted the incident on Twitter. The new low-yield nuclear warhead the Pentagon wants to develop would be about 5-6 kilotons. But that does not mean the meteor caused an explosion. “We don’t know how that burn happened, it could have burned for the entire stretch or it could have been a blast at the end of it of course, we just don’t know,” Kristensen said. NO RUSSIA DISCONNECT: In his appearance on Fox, Bolton insisted there was no disconnect between the president and his national security team over the continued threat to U.S. elections from Russia, despite Trump saying the U.S. is being “hindered by the Russian hoax” “The president knew exactly what was going to be said at that press briefing on Thursday. He’s the one who directed it be held. It came as the result of a National Security Council meeting we had held the Friday before where the heads of the operating agencies and departments before who attended the press briefing on Thursday and others told the president what it was doing, he felt it was important that the American people hear directly from the people responsible for election security at the federal level, hear what they were up to, at least in a non-classified environment,” Bolton said. So what’s the hoax? “The hoax is the idea that the Trump campaign was a beneficiary of a concerted effort together with the Russians to affect the 2016 election. As to that, I don’t think there’s any evidence publicly but everybody who participated in the press conference Thursday agreed, as has the president on several public occasions that the intelligence community assessment of Russian meddling in 2016 is valid,” Bolton explained. Over on CBS, Rep. Adam Schiff said, “The president can’t distinguish between any allegations of conspiracy against his campaign and the broader problem of Russia continuing to interfere in our elections.” Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called on Trump to confront Vladimir Putin directly. “Instead, exactly the opposite message is being sent … as long as the Russians interfere on Donald Trump’s side in the midterms, Vladimir Putin can count on the president to never call him out.” HALEY CALLS OUT RUSSIA: Russia’s reported reliance on North Korean slave labor drew a rebuke from the top American diplomat at the United Nations, as the United States seeks to punish support for the pariah regime. “Talk is cheap — Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Friday. Pompeo’s team is trying to maintain economic pressure on North Korea in order to ensure the success of negotiations over dismantling his nuclear weapons program. That effort depends on Russian and Chinese enforcement with international sanctions. “These reports are especially concerning as they come just one month after Russia refused to acknowledge North Korea’s violations of the U.N. oil cap and blocked a United States request to enforce sanctions and put a stop to it,” she said. SEAGAL’S NEW ROLE: American actor Steven Seagal has a new role to play: goodwill ambassador to the United States, deputized for the task by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Seagal was appointed as the ministry’s special representative for Russian-U.S. humanitarian ties, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s team said in a bulletin carried Saturday by state-run media. “As for international practice, you can draw a parallel with the functions of United Nations goodwill ambassadors,” the announcement said. “I am deeply humbled and honoured to have been appointed as a special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry in charge of Russian and American Humanitarian ties. I hope we can strive for peace, harmony and positive results in the world. I take this honour very seriously,” Seagal tweeted on Sunday. Putin granted Seagal citizenship in 2016. THE RUNDOWN Defense News: DoD reveals why there’s ‘not going to be another big’ budget increase in 2020 Washington Post: Pentagon doubles down on ‘single-cloud’ strategy for $10 billion contract AP: Yemen: US allies don’t defeat al-Qaida but pay it to go away Politico: Is the space war threat being hyped? Reuters: Apparent attack in Venezuela highlights risk of drone strikes Business Insider: Confusion still abounds about what caused the explosion in Venezuela, but experts warn Maduro will use it as an excuse to consolidate power either way Defense One: Russia Is Slowly Declining As a Space Superpower USA Today: U.S., North Korean top diplomats trade barbs over sanctions, pace of denuclearization Breaking Defense: Bell Pushes V-280 Gunship, Shipboard Variants: Recon In Works New York Times: Are ISIS Fighters Prisoners or Honored Guests of the Afghan Government? Fox News: John Bolton on Maduro ‘assassination’ attempt, Russian election meddling DoD Buzz: How Effective is the LCS Mine Detection Package? Navy, IG Disagree Navy Times: Breaking the Big E: Already more than $1 billion in projected costs and snarled in red tape Task and Purpose: Here Are All The Military’s Worst Acronyms |
CalendarMONDAY | AUG. 6 Noon. Rayburn 2168. Disentangling from Syria. defensepriorities.org TUESDAY | AUG. 7 10:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. A Conversation with UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson. atlanticcouncil.org WEDNESDAY | AUG. 8 10:30 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. U.S. Arms Transfer Policy and Shaping the Way Ahead with Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. csis.org 5:30 p.m. 800 17th St. NW. 2018 HORIZONS Scholarship Celebration. womenindefense.net FRIDAY | AUG. 10 8 a.m. 300 1st St. SE. Nuclear Deterrence, Missile Defense, and Space: Paths Forward with Gen. Paul Selva, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. mitchellaerospacepower.org
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