No additional preconditions for North Korea talks Presented by Northrop Grumman

With Eli Okun, Connor O’Brien and Jacqueline Klimas

NO ADDITIONAL PRECONDITIONS, NO CONCESSIONS FOR NORTH KOREA TALKS: “White House spokesman Raj Shah said Sunday that there will not be additional preconditions before a possible historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,” via POLITICO’s Brent D. Griffiths.


“‘The potential meeting has been agreed to; there are no additional conditions being stipulated,’ Shah, a deputy press secretary, told ABC's Jonathan Karl on ‘This Week.’ ‘But again, they cannot engage in missile testing, they cannot engage in nuclear testing and they cannot object to U.S.- South Korean joint military exercises.’”

And CIA Director Mike Pompeo says the U.S. won't be making any “concessions” to North Korea ahead of any talks with President Donald Trump, our colleague Aubree Eliza Weaver adds.

Still, the U.S. seeks “concrete actions” from North Korea before the planned talks, the White House said Friday via Reuters.

— ‘THE GREATEST DEAL FOR THE WORLD,’ via Brent: “President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was the only president who could broker a deal with North Korea, talking up his newly unveiled plan to meet with Kim Jong Un while slamming his predecessors' foreign policies.

"‘Who else could do it, I mean, honestly, when you think,’ Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania, where he endorsed Republican Rick Saccone ahead of Tuesday's congressional special election. ‘They're not going to send missiles up, and I believe that, I really do. I think they want to do something. I think they want to make peace’ ...

“The president said North Korea has promised to halt missile testing ahead of any discussions — a pledge he said he expects Kim to keep — and that the ‘greatest deal for the world’ could be reached.”

But Trump’s bold stroke is already dissolving into confusion, POLITICO’s Nancy Cook, Eliana Johnson and Cristiano Lima write.

Here's a look inside Trump’s snap decision to meet Kim, via The New York Times.

Though his decision wasn’t impulsive, aides say, via The Wall Street Journal.

— PLUMES OF PLUTONIUM MAY BELIE KIM’S DISARMAMENT TALK, reports the NYT: “North Korea appears to be making new nuclear bomb fuel, satellite imagery shows, even as its leader, Kim Jong-un, has expressed willingness to negotiate atomic disarmament with President Trump.

“Two separate teams of American analysts examining satellite images from January and February have concluded that the North’s reactor at Yongbyon, which had appeared to be dormant, is now making plutonium — a principal fuel of nuclear arms.”

North Korea’s silence on the upcoming summits with the U.S. and South Korea is likely due to caution ahead of the meetings, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification says, via Reuters.

And U.S.-South Korea military exercises are on, adds The Washington Post.

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MD TRIVIA: George Withers was the first to correctly identify Staff Sgt. Reckless, the horse whose statue is on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps that carried wounded soldiers off the battlefield in the Korean War.

Tune in Friday for this week’s question.

HAPPENING TODAY — SERVICE SECRETARIES AT CSIS: The Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries participate in a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about their fiscal 2019 budget proposals and key initiatives.

Additionally, National Guard Bureau chief Gen. Joseph Lengyel speaks with the Association of the United States Army in Arlington, Va.

— MATTIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is meeting this week with Gulf leaders, including those in Oman and Bahrain — home of the 5th Fleet.

His visit comes as a Saudi-Arab coalition, backed by the U.S., continues to strike targets in Yemen in a war seen as a proxy battle with Iran. As a result of the fighting, hardship awaits displaced civilians in one Yemeni town, Reuters writes.

Mattis plans to speak with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said about the Yemen war on Oman’s border, diplomatic tensions in the Gulf, and military relations, the Defense Department adds.

— ON TUESDAY, SASC HEARS CENTCOM AND AFRICOM COMMANDERS: U.S. Central and Africa Command chiefs Army Gen. Joseph Votel and Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee about their areas of responsibility and on the Defense Department’s fiscal 2019 budget request.

On Sunday, Mattis warned Syria it would be “very unwise” for government forces to use weaponized gas, as he cited unconfirmed reports of chlorine attacks in eastern Ghouta and slammed Russian support for Damascus, via Reuters.

The Syrian army splintered a rebel enclave in its assault on eastern Ghouta, Reuters also reports. And Syrian rebels agree to evacuate al-Qaeda-linked fighters from the area, the NYT adds.

Additionally, Turkish forces are set for an assault on a key Kurdish-held city in Syria, the WSJ reports. And Turkish warplanes destroyed 18 Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq, Reuters adds.

The Syrian Kurds straddle some uneasy alliances, as followers of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK imprisoned as a terrorist, and U.S. partners in the war against ISIS, the NYT writes.

But as the U.S. seeks to repair relations with Turkey, those U.S.-Kurdish ties are in danger, The Washington Post adds. Meanwhile, the U.S. pares back its use of Incirlik Air Base in Turkey amid strains with Ankara, the WSJ reports.

In Afghanistan, the U.S. military ramps up its presence amid little scrutiny, The Associated Press writes. An ethnic and religious minority protests in Kabul after an ISIS suicide attack killed 10 on Friday, the NYT reports. And the Afghan Taliban urge religious scholars to boycott a conference to talk about potentials Afghanistan peace talks, via Reuters.

And, in Kenya, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to a park that commemorates the 1998 American embassy bombing in the city highlights proposed spending cut to his department, the NYT writes.

— ON WEDNESDAY, AIR FORCE LEADERS DISCUSS BUDGET WITH HOUSE APPROPRIATORS: Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein testify before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on the service’s fiscal 2019 budget request.

William Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, is also scheduled to appear before the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee Wednesday on the service’s request.

Additionally, Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, participates in a Mitchell Institute forum on “current acquisition challenges and opportunities.”

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft heads to Capitol Hill Wednesday as well, to testify before the House Transportation’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee on his service’s fiscal 2019 budget request.

And the House Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hears from Defense Department research officials on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2019 request for science and technology programs.

— ON THURSDAY, PACOM, EUCOM AND ARMY LEADERS TESTIFY AT SASC: U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris appears before SASC to update the committee on his command’s posture and on the department’s fiscal 2019 budget request. Harris, who is retiring, has also been picked to serve as U.S. ambassador to Australia.

U.S. European Command chief Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti appears before HASC on security challenges in Europe and those posed by Russia, amid Russia’s resurgence, writes the AP.

Over the weekend, Russia said it successfully launched a new hypersonic missile, reports Agence France-Presse. But Mattis calls Vladimir Putin’s recent nuclear weapons speech “disappointing but unsurprising,” via The Washington Post.

Also Thursday morning, Army Secretary Mark Esper and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley appear before the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on their service’s fiscal 2019 budget request.

And Thursday afternoon, HASC’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee conenves a hearing on national security space programs, featuring testimony from Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and global security, and Gen. John Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command.

FOR YOUR RADAR — TRUMP’S MILITARY PARADE, MINUS THE TANKS, IS SET FOR VETERANS DAY, reports our colleague Jacqueline Klimas: “President Donald Trump will get his much-anticipated military parade, but it will not include some of the biggest military hardware, according to a planning memo released late Friday by the Pentagon.

“The event, which will take place Nov. 11, will include troops from different branches, highlight the growing role of women in the armed forces and have a ‘heavy air component’ of modern and historic war planes, the memo says. Also participating will be veterans groups and the ceremonial Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

“But it will not feature tanks rolling between the White House and Capitol to ‘minimize damage to local infrastructure,’ the memo says.”

And the cost of a military parade could feed every homeless veteran for two weeks, writes Newsweek.

MAKING MOVES — FORMER DoD OFFICIAL LAUNCHES BEACON ROCK STRATEGIES: Amber Smith is starting a leadership and communications firm, Beacon Rock Strategies, where she'll be president. Most recently, she was deputy assistant to the secretary of Defense for outreach and worked for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

SPEED READ

— Army veteran Togo West, who was a VA secretary in the Clinton administration, dies at 75: The Washington Post

— North Korea talks could make Trump likelier to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal: WSJ

— China’s parliament clears the path for President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely: BBC

— Trump’s unpredictability on trade and North Korea opens a door for China: NYT

— The Navy mounts a charm offensive in Vietnam: The Guardian

— And here’s a roundup of recent development in the South China Sea: AP

— The U.S. might tie NATO contributions to tariff exemptions: AP

— Trump pardons the sailor in the submarine photos case: POLITICO

— The Navy is canceling a program to turn gas-guzzling destroyers into hybrids: Defense News

— How much longer will the U.S. and partner forces still “own the night” in combat? Military Times

— Former Defense Secretary William Perry on Putin’s "phony" arms race: POLITICO Magazine

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