Ideas

The Mystery at the Heart of North Korea Talks

The parties have yet to agree on what exactly should be "denuclearized." But one South Korean official has a plan to close the gap.

Ideas

Here’s What Trump Actually Achieved With North Korea

It wasn’t what he said. But it was much more than nothing.

Policy

Donald Trump Actually Seems to Believe He Denuclearized North Korea

The president claims the nuclear threat is gone, but that's not what he achieved in Singapore.

Ideas

A Summit Short on Details, Yet Better Than War

The good news is that the Trump administration already has plans to continue the talks.

Threats

Trump-Kim Summit: North Korea Experts Will Breathe a Sigh of Relief If…

10 experts' answers, ranked in order of apparent increasing difficulty.

Ideas

Rick Perry Should Not Be Allowed to Pick Nuclear Weapons

The Trump administration and its allies in Congress want the Energy Secretary to determine whether to develop a new class of low-yield nuclear weapons.

Ideas

Four Ways North Korea's Nukes Spell Trouble for the US — Even If They're Never Used

Kim Jong Un's ability to export anything from ICBM plans to working warheads gives him tremendous leverage, while boxing in U.S. responses.

Ideas

What Would Denuclearization Look Like in North Korea?

Success will start by closing the gap between what the U.S. and North Korea mean by the term.

Ideas

North Korea Wants to End up Like Pakistan, Not Libya

A poor country made enormous sacrifices to get nuclear weapons—and has them still.

Ideas

What Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un Don't Know About Their Own Standoff

If the Cuban Missile Crisis is any indication, today’s leaders may be dangerously misinformed about the nuclear crisis.

Ideas

How to Bring the US-NK Rollercoaster Back to Earth

It starts with a sober assessment of what’s possible. Not on that list: Pyongyang somehow forgetting how to make nukes.

Ideas

WTF: A Few Morning Thoughts on US-North Korea Relations

Kim Jong Un doesn’t need to dance with Trump. He’s got his own nuclear weapons.

Threats

The Word That Derailed the Trump-Kim Summit

The Americans and the North Koreans were all set for a historic meeting. Then they started talking about Libya.

Ideas

Former South Korean National-Security Adviser: The US May Have to Withdraw Some Troops

Breaking with his fellow conservatives, Chun Yung Woo says "there will be no solution" to the North Korean nuclear crisis without willingness to compromise on the U.S. alliance.

Ideas

What the North Koreans Told Me About Their Plans

I was one of a handful of former officials to meet with them when they were just developing their current strategy. Those talks offer the best information we have about how to achieve denuclearization.

Threats

The Campaign to Denuclearize North Korea Crashes Back to Earth

Kim Jong Un "has been playing a high-risk, high-return game. And he has never lost a bet thus far.”

Science & Tech

Pentagon Wants Cloud Secure Enough to Hold Nuke Secrets

The Pentagon’s JEDI cloud will be designed to store the military's most sensitive classified information.

Ideas

'All Is Shambles': The Days After the Iran Deal

Prominent advocates for withdrawal grappled too little with the possibility that the president cannot pull this off.

Ideas

Iran Hawks Are the New Iraq Hawks

Many of the assumptions that guided America’s march to conflict in 2003 still dominate American foreign policy today.

Ideas

Netanyahu and Iran's Atomic Archive: What's New and What's Not

Among the new bits: Tehran's nuclear planners envisioned an arsenal so small as to make Kim Jong Un giggle.