Morning Joe: Thawing with North Korea?

Stories we're following today:

South Korea Agrees to Visit by North - New York Times [link]

• The South Korean government has agreed to allow North Korean diplomats to travel to Seoul on Friday to bring a funeral wreath for the former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.

N. Korea Feels 'Owed' Direct Talks with U.S., Richardson Says - CNN [link]

• North Korea believes it's owed bilateral talks with the United States after the communist government released two detained American journalists this month -- a notion that senior Obama administration officials quickly rejected on Wednesday.
• "I detected for the first time ... a lessening of tension, some positive vibrations," Richardson said, comparing Wednesday's meeting with the many others he's engaged in with the North Koreans.

 Critics Purged as Ahmadinejad Nominates New Iran Cabinet - The Guardian [link]

• The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has submitted his nominations for a new cabinet filled with loyalists and little-known figures. Many politicians warned that the move – which has purged the cabinet of critics – risked a challenge from his conservative allies in parliament.

 An RRW Revival? - Nukes of Hazard [link]

• GSN’s Elaine Grossman had a huge scoop on the ongoing debate within the Obama administration about what is required to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrent. The article is long, but a must read. Below are some of our reactions.
• History shows that once a strategic or political need for a defense program is established, the effort becomes extremely difficult to terminate... The technical and fiscal risks inherent in this approach are legion; nonetheless, once the rationale exists for a program – as it does (legitimately or not) for the RRW and the new spy satellite – the momentum carrying the program forward becomes self-sustaining. Even dormant periods with no activity or funding can be bridged successfully.

Why Iran's Clock Keeps Resetting - Arms Control Wonk [link]

• What do [the date estimates on Iran's nuclear program by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research] represent? Do they tell us “when exactly Iran gets the bomb?”

Tauscher Sworn in, "T" Bureau Takes Shape - The Cable [link]

• Now that Tauscher's in, she is expected to work closely with Clinton.
• [Sec. Clinton's personally swore in the new Undersecretary is a] "reflection of the personal importance Secretary Clinton places on the broad issues of arms control and nonproliferation. Indeed, for all the recent musings over where Hillary Clinton can make her mark in this administration, forging progress on strengthening the global nonproliferation regime and securing Senate ratification of such key agreements like the START follow-on treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty can lay the foundation for a very strong [Clinton] legacy."

A View from the Dark Side

Boeing Floats New Anti-Missile Idea For Europe - Reuters [link]

• Boeing Co unveiled a surprise proposal to build a mobile interceptor missile in an effort to blunt Russian fears of possible U.S. fixed missile-defense sites in Europe.
• "If a fixed site is going to be just too hard to get implemented politically or otherwise, we didn't want people to think that the only way you needed to use a GBI was in a fixed silo," Greg Hyslop, Boeing's vice president and general manager for missile defense, told Reuters at a U.S. Army-sponsored missile-defense conference in Huntsville, Alabama.