SHOT ACROSS THE BOW: North Korea is turning up the pressure on President Trump to break the deadlock over efforts to reach an agreement in which Pyongyang would give up its nuclear and long-range missile arsenal, signaling its discontent with the test of what it called a “new-type tactical guided weapon.”
The test, Thursday Korea time, was personally supervised by Kim Jong Un, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, which said Kim “mounted an observation post” to observe the short-range weapon in action.
“The design indexes of the tactical guided weapon whose advantages are appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead were perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets,” said KCNA.
DOESN’T VIOLATE THE BAN: The description of the weapon as “tactical” seems to indicate it is a relatively short-range rocket or missile system, which would not violate North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium on ICBM or missile testing, but it still sends a message says Harry Kazianis, Korea expert at the Center for the National Interest.
“While we don’t know the exact weapon system that North Korea recently tested, this does serve as a useful reminder of one critical fact: Chairman Kim Jong Un never promised to stop testing all weapons in his military arsenal, just nuclear weapons and ICBMs that have the potential to hit the U.S. homeland,” says Kazianis. “Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day and that his regime is becoming frustrated with Washington’s lack of flexibility in recent negotiations. Sadly, we are only one ICBM test away from another crisis with Pyongyang, and these smaller tests only bring us closer to such a moment.”
KIM OVER POMPEO: In another sign of North Korea’s frustration with President Trump’s all-or-nothing negotiating strategy, a senior North Korean official blamed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February, suggesting he be replaced with someone “who is more careful and mature.”
Kwon Jong Gun, who heads the North Korea foreign ministry’s department of American affairs, accused Pompeo of “self-indulgence” and “reckless remarks.”
“I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled,” Kwon said, according to a KCNA report.
MULLEN ENDORSES TRUMP’S TOUGH LINE: At an event sponsored by the Arms Control Association this week, former Joint Chiefs chairman retired Adm. Mike Mullen said what Trump is trying to achieve “is exactly right.”
“I actually admire President Trump for sitting down with the guy,” said Mullen, who served under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “Line up all the other conventions, all the other presidents, and we’re nowhere with North Korea.”
“if you asked me to pick a camp I would pick CVID as the goal,” said Mullen, using the acronym for “complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement” of North Korea’s nuclear program. “I’m only going to be happy with this when this guy doesn’t have his finger on that trigger,” he said, because he believes that if Kim felt he was about to be overthrown, “He’d pull that trigger.”
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Kelly Jane Torrance (@kjtorrance). 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.
HAPPENING TODAY: President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride before departing for Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. The president will remain at Mar-a-Lago through Easter.
As he prepared to leave town, Trump tweeted, “Democrats in Congress must return from their Vacations and change the Immigration Laws, or the Border, despite the great job being done by Border Patrol, will only get worse. Big sections of Wall now being built!”
PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS: The Pentagon press corps has been counting the days since the last on-camera briefing by a regular Department of Defense representative, with the last such affair conducted by Dana White on May 31, 2018.
But the department will be getting two new representatives next month. Jonathan Hoffman will move from the Department of Homeland Security to the Pentagon to become assistant to the secretary for public affairs, the position that has been vacant since White stepped down shortly after her boss Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned in December.
And Air Force Col. DeDe Halfhill will be the new director of press operations, filling the slot left vacant when Army Col. Rob Manning retired earlier this year. Manning used to conduct semi-regular off-camera briefings known as “gaggles” every week or two.
“She is a career Air Force public affairs officer with a variety of PA and command experience,” said deputy director Tom Crosson in an email to Pentagon reporters. “She served as the deputy PA director at USPACOM and she was recently the Mission Support Group commander at Barksdale AFB.”
Both Hoffman and Halfhill are expected to be on board by late May, but their moves still don’t answer the big question on the mind of Pentagon reporters, namely whether either will actually conduct briefings on a regular basis. Typically, when a new representative takes over at the Pentagon, it takes a few months to get up to speed.
TALIBAN PEACE TALKS DELAYED: Just as it seemed there could be a major breakthrough in the effort to reach a peace agreement with the Taliban, a highly anticipated meeting in Qatar between the terrorist group and a large delegation of prominent Afghans has been postponed.
The Taliban has been negotiating with the United States but has refused to deal directly with the U.S.-backed government of Ashraf Ghani. The agreement by the Taliban to meet informally with a group of Afghans was seen as a sign of hope that the Taliban position might be softening.
But just as the group of 250 delegates was set to fly to Doha, the Taliban canceled the meeting, objecting to the size of the delegation. “The gathering has been called off for now and details were being reworked,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul, according to Reuters. “The government will have to change the composition of the delegation to make this meeting happen,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
IRAQI F-16s JOIN THE COALITION: In some ways, it was an uneventful flight Tuesday when Iraqi F-16s flew a routine “counter air mission” above the Iraqi-Syrian border. Except it marked a major milestone that has been years in the making, the maturation of the Iraqi Air Force, which has been moribund since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The mission was the first time Iraqi fighter aircraft have flown a combat sortie alongside coalition aircraft, said a statement from Operation Inherent Resolve.
“The Iraqi Air Enterprise continues to build their capabilities as Coalition air advisers work alongside our Iraqi partners to integrate operations,” said Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, the coalition’s director of air operations.
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Trump and Pompeo authorize wave of American lawsuits against Western companies in Cuba
AP: Analysis: Kim, returning to military optics, turns up heat
New York Times: Two New Tent Cities Will Be Built in Texas to Hold Migrants
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Pacific Commander Seeks More Funding to Counter China
Defense One: Army Secretary Reveals Weapons Wishlist for War with China & Russia
Stars and Stripes: Japan Says Its F-35A Stealth Fighters Made Seven Precautionary Landings Before Crash
The Diplomat: Russia Completes Delivery Of 24 Su-35 Fighter Jets To China
Breaking Defense: Army Tells Shoddy Suppliers: Shape Up
Bloomberg: Bolton Says U.S. Seeks To Persuade Russia To Drop Maduro Support
USNI News: U.K. Developing its Own Extra Large UUV for Royal Navy
Military.com: Number of female generals, admirals has doubled since 2000, report finds
Military.com: Next CNO Wants to See More Women Getting Promoted to Captain, Admiral
Washington Post: Naval Academy to enforce transgender restrictions for entering students in 2020
New York Times: ‘Memory Boxes’ Offer Poignant Reminders of Afghan Lives Lost to Violence
Washington Post: In a twist, Canada asks U.S. for help cracking down at its southern border
Yahoo News: Revealed: The U.S. military’s 36 code-named operations in Africa
Calendar
THURSDAY | APRIL 18
8:30 a.m. 300 First Street S.E. National Defense Industrial Association, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, the Air Force Association, and the Reserve Officers Association forum on “U.S. Power as a Non-Proliferation Tool,” featuring assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation Christopher Ford. www.afa.org
11:45 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Hudson Institute event, “Crisis in Yemen: A Strategic Threat to U.S. Interests and Allies?” with Fatima Abo Alasrar, senior analyst at the Arabia Foundation; Bernard Haykel, professor and Near Eastern studies director at the Princeton University Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia; Lee Smith, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute; and Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. www.hudson.org/events
2 p.m. Pentagon River Entrance. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan welcomes Albanian minister of defense Olta Xhacka to the Pentagon.
2 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. Brookings Institution discussion on “Red Sea Rivalries: The Gulf, the Horn, and the New Geopolitics of the Red Sea.” Speakers: European Union Special Representative to the Horn of Africa Alex Rondos; Karen Young, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute; Zach Vertin, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center; Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings; and Rush Doshi, post-doctoral fellow at Brookings. www.brookings.edu
FRIDAY | APRIL 19
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Avenue N.W. The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion on “Is U.S.-North Korean Normalization Possible? A Russian Perspective.” Speakers: Anastasia Barannikova, visiting fellow in the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program; and Jeffrey Mankoff, deputy director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program. www.csis.org
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 24
8 a.m. 2201 G St N.W. Defense Writers Group Breakfast with John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. Crain Center Duques Hall, George Washington School of Business. nationalsecuritymedia.gwu.edu
8:30 a.m. 1819 L St. N.W. Sasakawa USA hosts its 6th Annual Security Forum, “The U.S.-Japan Alliance: New Security Challenges.” Speakers include Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Shinsuke Sugiyama, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, Former Director of National Intelligence retired Adm. Dennis Blair, and Chairman of the Asia Pacific Initiative Yoichi Funabashi. Live streamed at spfusa.org/event. Register at events.r20.constantcontact.com.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m also struck by the complete lack of wisdom in 33-year-olds. … I’m just old enough to know while I thought I had some wisdom at 33, I understand now I didn’t as I’ve become older, and so I’ve got a 33-year-old with this capability and I wouldn’t trust them at all.”
Former Joint Chiefs chairman retired Adm. Mike Mullen, speaking of his fear that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, 35, will be tempted to pull the nuclear trigger.
