Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 14, 2017

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides the test-fire of Pukguksong-2 on the spot, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang February 13, 2017. KCNA/Handout via Reuters

Peter Apps, Reuters: North Korea gives Donald Trump a nuclear crisis from hell

George W. Bush invaded Iraq to remove its – ultimately nonexistent – weapons of mass destruction. Barack Obama used cyber weaponry and sanctions to deter Iran from building its own atomic bomb. Now Donald Trump faces North Korea, but stopping its nuclear and missile program may prove impossible, creating what may be his first and perhaps defining international crisis.

Trump has been left to confront North Korea’s nuclear activities because his predecessors failed to manage them. The regime in Pyongyang, meanwhile, continues to build ever more dangerous – and hard-to-destroy or intercept – weapons systems.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 14, 2017

Dealing with North Korea -- Joseph R. DeTrani, Washington Times

Why North Korea may present Trump's toughest international issue -- Peter Grier, CSM

Death of Kim Jong-nam: depictions of North Korea hide threat of dictatorship -- Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

South Korea Needs to Realize That North Korea Isn't Going to Collapse -- Robert E. Kelly, National Interest

The Never Ending Story: The Morass of Afghanistan and Pakistan -- Kevin Hulbert, Cipher Brief

Don’t Be Fooled: We Are Getting Tougher With China -- Paul Richard Huard, RCD

Egypt Picks Sides in the Syrian War -- Oren Kessler, Foundation For Defense of Democracies

China piles into Cuba as Venezuela fades and Trump looms -- Marc Frank, Reuters

In Venezuela's reaction to US sanctions, a possible 'Russia factor' -- Whitney Eulich, CSM

The European Unraveling? -- Ana Palacio, Project Syndicate

The Rise of Progressive 'Fake News' -- Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic

Trump vs. the Globalists -- Blake Hounshel, Politico

Putin Is Getting All He Ever Wanted From Trump -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

Trump's Russia Reset Will Survive Flynn's Ouster -- Julia Ioffe, The Atlantic

Flattery gets Justin Trudeau everywhere with Donald Trump -- John Ivison, National Post