DATELINE BRUSSELS: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford’s plane touched down in Brussels this morning as NATO military chiefs prepare for meetings this week. I’m one of the four reporters traveling with Dunford to the NATO session, where most business is done behind closed doors. Dunford is attending the 79th Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session.

SKY HIGH HOPES: Pompeo returned from his trip to North Korea to retrieve the three freed Americans brimming with confidence for next month’s Singapore summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un. While Pompeo and Bolton professed to be skeptical and that their “eyes are wide open,” both signaled a high level of optimism, considering North Korea’s dismal record of promise-keeping.

“I think the president’s very optimistic because he sees the chance of a breakthrough, but I don’t think he has stars in his eyes over this,” said Bolton on ABC.

THE ‘CHAIRMAN’ IS ON BOARD: But Pompeo, who looked Kim in the eye last week, sounded even more upbeat on Fox. “I have told him that what President Trump wants is to see the North Korean regime get rid of its nuclear weapons program, completely and in totality,” Pompeo said. “It’s pretty straightforward … I think, in that sense, Chairman Kim shares that same objective.”

WHAT DOES DENUCLEARIZATION LOOK LIKE? “Implementation of the decision means getting rid of all the nuclear weapons, dismantling them, taking them to Oakridge, Tennessee,” Bolton said on ABC. “It means getting rid of the uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities. It means addressing the ballistic missile issue.”  

“The same deal we should have done with Iran,” said Pompeo on CBS.

WHAT NORTH KOREA GETS: “If [Kim] wants to be a normal nation, if he wants to have normal relations with the rest of the world, if he wants trade and investment to be possible for his desperately poor country, this is the path to do it,” Pompeo said.

On CBS, Pompeo promised that if Kim takes complete, verifiable and irreversible steps toward denuclearization, the U.S. can create conditions for economic prosperity for the North Korean people that will rival that of the south. They will get “our finest, our entrepreneurs, our risk takers, our capital providers, not our taxpayers.

“This will be Americans coming in — private-sector Americans, not the U.S. taxpayer, private-sector Americans helping build the energy grid. They need enormous amounts of electricity in North Korea, to work with them to develop infrastructure. All the things that the North Korean people need, the capacity for American agriculture to support North Korea so they can eat meat and have healthy lives.”

NORTH KOREA CEREMONY: On Saturday, Trump thanked Kim for promising to take apart a nuclear test site ahead of negotiations between the two countries. “North Korea has announced that they will dismantle Nuclear Test Site this month, ahead of the big Summit Meeting on June 12th. Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!” Trump wrote.

SHOULD CONGRESS RATIFY THE DEAL? Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Robert Gates had some advice for Trump: Don’t do what former President Barack Obama did. Get Congress to seal the deal “If you just do these things by executive agreement, first of all, that doesn’t make it the law of the land for the next president,” Gates said on CBS. The next president, with the stroke of a pen, can overturn it just as President Trump has done with the Iran deal.”

Graham, also on CBS, urged Trump to send any agreement to the Senate. “If you could really get North Korea to give up their nuclear program, then I think there would be a lot of support in Congress to give North Korea a better life, provide aid, relieve sanctions, with one condition, that you give up your nuclear weapons program in a verifiable way,” Graham said.

“It’s entirely possible we proceed that way,” Bolton said on CNN. “We’re still thinking about the different alternatives. I wouldn’t want to foreclose the president’s options.”

HAPPENING TODAY — A NEW EMBASSY: The U.S. formally opens its new embassy in Jerusalem this morning, and a delegation led by Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will be on hand for the ceremony. The Israeli military is doubling the number of troops it has around the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank for the opening.

The three additional army brigades will be in place to contend with an expected flurry of Palestinian protests, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse.

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE: Palestinians see the embassy move as a betrayal that calls into question the U.S. role as an honest broker, and there are violent protests today, but on Fox Pompeo insisted “the peace process is most decidedly not dead. We’re hard at work on it. We hope we can achieve a successful outcome there as well.”

“The problem is, the Palestinians are divided,” said Graham on CBS. “You have Hamas controlling Gaza, Palestinian Authority controlling the West Bank. Gaza is a rocket-launching factory against Israel. Until the Palestinians reconcile under one flag, there will never be peace.”

HAPPENING THIS WEEK — KING’S ARRIVAL: The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion has been billed as the most powerful helicopter ever fielded by the U.S. military and the Marine Corps is set to take delivery. Early this week, Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina will receive the first King Stallion cargo helicopter, which can lift three times the weight of the CH-53E Super Stallion it will replace, according to the service.

AUTHORIZING MILITARY FORCE: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to take another shot this Wednesday at writing a new authorization for the use of military force against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated groups. Some senators have been calling on Congress to update the current 9/11-era war authorization for years. But the last effort by the committee in 2015 fizzled despite a request by the Obama administration. The committee will hold a hearing on new bipartisan AUMF legislation led by Sens. Bob Corker and Tim Kaine.

The proposal provides Trump the same power to go after the terror groups around the world as the current AUMF, which has been interpreted by three administrations as justification for strikes ranging from Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and the Philippines. But the Corker and Kaine bill would require Congress to review the war powers every four years. Trump would also be required to notify lawmakers within 48 hours if any new groups are targeted and lawmakers would have 60 days to review the move. In either case, the AUMF powers would remain in place if Congress did not act.  

ARMY BUDGET HEARING: The defense budget hearings aren’t over yet. Army Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, are set to testify before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on Tuesday morning. The two testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month and the House Appropriations Committee in March.

PARIS ATTACK: Trump on Sunday called for a change in mindset for how countries deal with terrorism. In a tweet, the president reflected on Saturday’s stabbing attack in Paris, in which one person was killed and four others were wounded by a knife-wielding assailant.

“So sad to see the Terror Attack in Paris. At some point countries will have to open their eyes & see what is really going on. This kind of sickness & hatred is not compatible with a loving, peaceful, & successful country! Changes to our thought process on terror must be made,” Trump tweeted.

RUSSIANS INTERCEPTED: Two Air Force F-22 Raptor fighters intercepted and visually identified two Russian Tu-95 “Bear” long-range bombers flying off the western coast of Alaska on Friday, according to a statement from the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The two bombers were identified north of the Aleutian Islands. The F-22s intercepted and monitored the bombers until they left the air defense identification zone. At no time did the bombers enter U.S. airspace, NORAD said.

TRANSGENDER TRIAL DATE: A federal district court in Seattle has scheduled a trial for the lawsuit against Trump and his proposed transgender policy for the military, but do not expect judgment anytime soon. A pretrial conference in the Karnoski v. Trump case is set for the end of May 2019 with a five- to 10-day bench trial to follow, according to court filings last week. The active-duty transgender troops and prospective recruits who filed the Karnoski suit are wrangling with the Justice Department over the discovery process and turning over documents related to Trump’s July tweet announcing a service ban.

MEANWHILE, A NEW MOTION: Plaintiffs in the Doe v. Trump case in D.C. filed a motion for a summary judgment in that case Friday, which if granted could bring a quick judgment and leapfrog the Doe case over the Seattle case. “The government’s own documents, newly obtained by discovery, show the March 23 ‘Mattis Plan’ is the same unconstitutional, categorical ban of all transgender people from military service that President Trump announced on Twitter,” said Jennifer Levi, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs. A similar motion was denied in the Seattle case.

TAKING THE MEASURE OF KIM: During his interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Pompeo was asked about his overall impressions of Kim after dealing with him in person twice.

“What struck me about him. He is very knowledgeable in the sense of he knows the files. He’s very capable of engaging in complex set of discussions. When I ask him a question about something that’s a little off he answers it. There’s no notecards,” he said. “It is Chairman Kim in this case interacting with me directly having a robust discussion about what the outlines of a successful negotiation between our two countries might ultimately be.”

THE RUNDOWN

New York Times: Taliban Kill Over 100 Afghan Soldiers and Police Officers in One Week

Defense News: Future attack sub Rickover hits milestone as US Navy churns through Virginia Block IV

CNN: Details on slain soldier’s harrowing last stand

Politico: Former Joint Chiefs chair: Haspel ‘should be held responsible’ for views on torture

New York Times: On U.S.-North Korea Talks, China May Hold The Cards

Reuters: Rouhani Says Iran May Remain Part Of Nuclear Accord

Wall Street Journal: Early Vote Returns In Iraq Suggest Political Shake-Up

Defense One: Strip the World’s Worst Actors of a Key Financial Tool

Fox News: Paris attacker ‘was on anti-terror watchlist’ for radicalism

Reuters: Rhetoric over U.S. exit from Iran deal rises amid sanctions threat

Marine Corps Times: Iraqi air successes can mean a reduced need for US military assets

Task and Purpose: More US Service Members Die Training Than At War. Can The Pentagon Change That?

USA Today: Trump adviser John Bolton calls U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem ‘a recognition of reality’

Washington Post: Father of soldier killed in Niger says officers cited in a military investigation are not at fault for his son’s death

CNN.com: China’s First Homegrown Aircraft Carrier Heads Out For Sea Trial

Navy Times: Truman Strike Group Is Pummeling ISIS In Syria