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Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

A Korean overture

• South Korea has proposed high-level talks with North Korea next week, after the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, called for negotiations to ease military tensions and to discuss his country’s participation in the Winter Olympics, which will be hosted by the South next month.

In his New Year’s Day speech, Mr. Kim said the North was capable of striking the mainland U.S. with a nuclear missile. “I have a nuclear button on the desk in my office,” he said.

• In an analysis, our correspondents say the comments represent “a canny new strategy to initiate direct talks with South Korea in the hope of driving a wedge into its seven-decade alliance with the United States.”