TALKING WITH KIM: A 10-member South Korean delegation had dinner today in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Korea is 14 hours ahead of Washington.) The talks come as North Korea is insisting it has no intention of giving up its nuclear program. The delegation is led by a top national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The special envoy Chung Eui-yong said before his departure Monday that he’ll relay Moon’s hopes for North Korean nuclear disarmament and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, according to the AP. “I plan to hold in-depth discussions on various ways to continue talks between not only the South and the North, but also the North and the United States and the international community,” said Chung, according to the South Korea Yonhap News Agency.

HAPPENING TODAY: Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are scheduled to meet at the White House. In addition to Mideast peace, which is always on the agenda, the two leaders are expected to discuss Iran and in particular its growing influence in Syria, where Bashar Assad is winning his brutal battle against rebels with the help of Tehran and Moscow.

“The last thing on my mind right now is the peace process,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an appearance yesterday on “Face the Nation” on CBS. Graham said the U.S. is on the verge of turning Syria over to Iran.  “We don’t have a strategy to contain Iran. They are about to take over Damascus,” Graham said. “If we don’t push Iran out and come up with an agreement in Geneva that gives Syria back to the Syrians, this war never ends.”

And he said Iran’s malign influence extends well beyond Syria. “We’re about to have a war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Iran is winning, and we’re losing,” Graham said, noting he had recently visited Israel and Jordan. “The king of Jordan is under siege. Plus, we have no policy regarding, as the United States, the Russian-Iranian access,” he said. “Southern Lebanon is a rocket-launching site against Israel. They are developing precision-guided weapons. So, I would focus on containing Iran, rather than pushing the peace process that’s broken.”

BUSY WEEK FOR ARMED SERVICES: The House and Senate armed services committees have loaded schedules this week covering everything from global threats to 2019 budget requests to the F-35 program.

Tuesday: Senate Armed Services hears testimony from Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, on worldwide security threats. A Senate Armed Services subcommittee holds a hearing on Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs. Meanwhile, House Armed Services hears testimony from Navy officials about the service’s fiscal 2019 budget request for seapower and projection forces, and one of its subcommittees holds a hearing on Marine Corps readiness.

Wednesday: House Armed Services has a hearing on acquisition reform with Bruce Jette, assistant Army secretary; James Geurts, assistant Navy secretary; and Will Roper, assistant Air Force secretary. That will be followed by a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program with Vice Adm. Mathias Winter, the executive officer of the F-35 Joint Program Office. House Armed Services will have a second subcommittee hearing that afternoon on the 2019 budget request for U.S. strategic forces that will include testimony from Gen. John Hyten, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, and John Rood, undersecretary of defense for policy.

Thursday: Senate Armed Services hears testimony about forces across the Atlantic from Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of U.S. European Command. Meanwhile, House Armed Services has two subcommittee hearings on the military’s mobility and transportation commands and Arlington National Cemetery.

WALDHAUSER FACES NIGER QUESTIONS: The U.S. general who is overseeing the investigation into the Islamic State-linked ambush last year that killed four soldiers in Niger will testify before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday and could reveal new details on what went wrong with the mission. The testimony comes as the Pentagon will soon release the findings of the probe that is in the hands of Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command.

“There may be a limit on how much [Waldhauser] can talk about that attack next week. We’ll see where we are when the time comes,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, the committee chairman. “It is important to be respectful of the families as far as time but it is also important for us to examine it and other issues related to Africa, especially given the fact that ISIS has been squeezed out of Iraq and Syria and we see the flow of terrorists in especially northern Africa.”

DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS KICKS OFF: Congress has yet to pass the current year’s spending bills, but the House is getting started on the 2019 defense spending bill that is due in October when the next fiscal year starts. House Appropriations’ defense subcommittee has a hearing Wednesday on the Navy and Marine Corps budget request that includes testimony from Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer; Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps; and Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations.

READY TO FIGHT: North Korea is “fully ready to fight” the U.S., state-run media emphasized in a message Saturday. “The DPRK has everything it needs and is ready for anything,” a North Korean editorial noted, using the official acronym for the regime. “An independent nuclear state, it is fully ready to fight any kind of war the US wants.”

That message was a response to a Feb. 15 report that U.S. intelligence agencies have surged resources toward the Korean Peninsula.

F-35s READY TO STING: The Navy’s 7th fleet reports the first detachment of F-35Bs has landed aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp in the East China Sea. It marks “the first time the aircraft has deployed aboard a U.S. Navy ship and with a Marine expeditionary unit in the Indo-Pacific,” a statement says. You can see photos of the vertical landing version of the jet arriving on Wasp here.  

The Navy says the F-35s will take part in Spring Patrol 2018, a regularly-scheduled cruise of the Indo-Pacific region. “This is a historic deployment,” said Col. Tye Wallace, commanding officer of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. “The F-35B is the most capable aircraft ever to support a Marine rifleman on the ground.”

COOL IT WITH THE COLD WAR TALK: Western powers are “not returning to the Cold War” despite renewed military threats from Russia, a top NATO diplomat argued a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim to have developed an “invincible” nuclear weapons system.

“We are trying to be judicious about deterring and defending at this moment in history, but not returning to the Cold War,” NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said during a town hall in Greece. “I think it’s very important to focus on the differences with the Cold War.”

Gottemoeller noted that the during the real Cold War the U.S. had 400,000 troops in Europe. Today the number is fewer than 62,000.

PUTIN’S REBUFF: Putin says he will not extradite 13 Russians charged by special counsel Robert Mueller for working to influence the 2016 election. “Never. Never,” Putin said. “Russia does not extradite its citizens to anyone. Does the U.S. extradite its citizens?”

The comments came in Putin’s interview with NBC’s Megyn Kelly, which aired yesterday during “Meet The Press.”  

REDUCED CUBA PRESENCE: The State Department said Friday the U.S. would permanently reduce the number of people at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba after mysterious attacks that triggered an emergency withdrawal of U.S. officials.

“On Monday, March 5, a new permanent staffing plan will take effect,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert’s office said. “The embassy will continue to operate with the minimum personnel necessary to perform core diplomatic and consular functions, similar to the level of emergency staffing maintained during ordered departure. The embassy will operate as an unaccompanied post, defined as a post at which no family members are permitted to reside.”

Two dozen Americans deployed to Cuba suffered “a concussion without an impact,” as one researcher put it, that produced an array of “cognitive issues,” including hearing and memory loss. The incidents took place gradually from November of 2016 through August of 2017.

THE RUNDOWN

Washington Post: Pentagon looks to adjust missile defense policy to include threats from Russia, China

Time Magazine: ‘We’re Gonna Do What International Law Says We Can Do.’ Aboard The USS Carl Vinson In The South China Sea

Air Force Times: What’s on the US Air Force’s unfunded wish list? Classified programs you can’t see.

Foreign Policy: Turkey’s New Foreign Policy Is Hostage-Taking

Business Insider: Trump on China abolishing presidential term limits: ‘Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday’

Defense News: China says military no threat, but refuses to reveal budget

Military Times: US, Afghan leaders agree on peace push, Taliban don’t

New York Times: U.S. Aircraft Carrier Heads to Vietnam, With a Message for China

Reuters: Assad vows to press Ghouta assault, as civilians flee government advances

USNI News: Shipbuilders Worried About Navy Plan for 1 LCS in 2019 Ahead of Frigate Transition

Wall Street Journal: The New Arms Race in AI