Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 7, 2018

Andrew Salmon, Asia Times: Kim’s initiative: The breakthrough the world has been waiting for?

North Korea has offered every precondition Seoul and Washington set for talks. But while the spectrum of opportunity has dramatically expanded, so, too, have the risks

The Korean Peninsula is arguably the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoint, but rarely – if ever – in inter-Korean relations has one side offered so much so swiftly.

According to South Korean officials who returned from two meetings in Pyongyang on Tuesday and delivered a press briefing in the South, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered a summit with the South and “candid” talks with the United States, while unilaterally freezing missile and nuclear tests during the anticipated negotiation process.

Most notably, according to the briefing, North Korea is open to denuclearization. “The North side clearly affirmed its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and said it would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons should the safety of its regime be guaranteed and military threats against North Korea removed,” Seoul’s delegation head and National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong said.

Chung and other officials are expected to fly to Washington on Thursday to brief their US counterparts.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 7, 2018

Can South Korea Really Defuse the North's Nuclear Threat? -- Patrick M. Cronin, National Interest

North Korea to Washington: It's Your Move Now -- Stratfor

North Korea's offer for talks: What's next? -- AFP

Is peace in Afghanistan within reach? -- Anish Goel, CNN

Can India ‘make China behave itself’? New Delhi bolsters defense partnership with Vietnam -- Vivek Raghuvanshi, Defense News

War reporter reflects on Vietnam’s will to move on -- Dan Southerland, Asia Times

Trade wars? Africa has been a victim of them for years -- Afua Hirsch, The Guardian

Stakes rise in Syria as Turkey clashes with pro-Assad militias -- Metin Gurcan, Al-Monitor

Wanted: A strategy for stabilizing Syria -- Michael E. O’Hanlon, Brookings

What Happens When Yemen Collapses? -- Gerald Feierstein, National Interest

5 Myths about Saudi Arabia's Nuclear Program -- Henry Sokolski, National Interest

Sergei Skripal: The story behind the Russian double agent found poisoned on a bench in an English town -- Rebeka Powell, ABC News Online

Russia Is Offering an Olive Branch, Not Nuclear War (Op-ed) -- Igor Ivanov, Moscow Times

How Putin failed to scare the world -- Roman Dobrokhotov, Al Jazeera

Merkel’s victory exposes Europe’s political fault lines -- Richard Ogier, Globe and Mail

Trump Says His New Tariffs Are About National Security. They’re Not. -- Tim Fernholz, Defense One/Quartz