Morning Joe: North Korea Opening to Talks

Stories we're following today:

2 Koreas to Discuss Family Reunions - New York Times [link]

• South Korea and North Korea agreed Tuesday to hold talks this week about arranging reunions of families separated by the Korean War more than 55 years ago. The discussions between Red Cross officials from both countries would be their first joint meeting in two years.
• Also Tuesday, South Korean news reports said that North Korea invited President Obama’s special envoy on North Korea, Stephen W. Bosworth, to visit Pyongyang for talks.

Japan Ready for 'No Nukes' - Shingo Fukuyama and Hiromichi Umebayshi in The Japan Times [link]

• It is distressing to note that Japan is being used as an excuse to prevent Washington from making an important policy change that would be a step forward toward a world without nuclear weapons. Some argue that a reduction in the role of nuclear weapons would weaken the U.S.-Japan security relationship.
• If the Obama administration moves decisively to get rid of "the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War." the joy of the vast majority of the Japanese people will overwhelm the reservations of an unrepresentative clique in the Japanese bureaucratic system.

Could Deterrence Counter A Nuclear Iran? - NPR [link]

• But if the country does eventually become a nuclear-armed state, one option available to the United States to counter that power is an approach that worked for nearly half a century: deterrence — using the threat of nuclear retaliation and complete destruction to prevent an attack.
• Note: This is part of a week-long series of articles on Iran's nuclear program. [Nod to Armscontrolwonk]

Potential Action on Nuclear Agency Reform Deferred to Year's End - Global Security Newswire [link]

• The White House budget office has reversed course on its plan to formally review whether responsibility for the safety, security and reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons should be transferred from the Energy Department to the Defense Department.
• Instead, the matter is being considered in interagency discussions and as part of a broader, ongoing Pentagon assessment of nuclear weapon strategy, forces and readiness...

A View from the Dark Side

Hillary's Right About the 'Defense Umbrella' - Ilan Berman and Clifford May in Wall Street Journal [link]

• The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and associated delivery systems since the collapse of the Soviet Union means that any "defense umbrella" will require the deployment of missile defense technologies capable of neutralizing a potential salvo of nuclear-tipped missiles—whether from Iran or another rogue such as North Korea.
• A half-hearted missile defense effort only encourages investments in missile technologies on the part of our adversaries, making them believe that with additional resources they will be capable of overwhelming American defenses.

The Lighter Side

Sparking Interest Within the Sphere of Art - Washington Post [link]

• When Jim Sanborn shows you his latest art, the jaw drops and elegant words fail.
• A polished aluminum sphere perches by the ceiling, coupled to a cylinder that could be a meat smoker from Mars. A glass tube the size of your thigh runs down almost to the floor, ringed with gleaming copper halos like a Buck Rogers ray gun. It's all totally Ed Wood -- except that Sanborn's scientific madness works. What we have here is a real, honest-to-God, no-holds-barred, fully operational electrostatic particle accelerator.