Morning Joe: North Korea Back to the Bargaining Table?

Stories we're following today:

North Korea Says Door Always Open to U.S. for Talks – Reuters [link]

• North Korea is willing to hold talks with Washington, a senior diplomat for the state said on Friday in the first such comments since former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang last week.

What Kind of Grand Deal with North Korea? – RealClearWorld [link]

• North Korea's reckless challenge to global security represents the fundamental reason that President Obama should place North Korea's nuclear issue high on his foreign policy agenda.
• Mr. Clinton's visit was no doubt a cheering prospect but the nuclear reality facing us would be grimmer than other people think, unless President Obama can pull off a deal with Kim Jong-il. What can Mr. Obama offer him?

Iran Calls for Ban on Striking Nuke Facilities – Associated Press 

• Iran, whose nuclear facilities are under threat of possible Israeli military strikes, proposed Wednesday that a 150-nation conference convening in the fall ban such attacks.
• Iran says the proposal is not linked to veiled threats by Israel of an attack as a last resort if the international community fails to persuade Tehran to freeze its nuclear activities.
• "We are not worried about Israel," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief envoy to the IAEA. "Nobody dares to do anything against Iran." He said an Iranian resolution will seek a worldwide ban on such attacks as "a matter of principle."

Pakistan’s Nukes are Safe. Maybe – Foreign Policy [link]

• The highly professional nature of Army units charged with guarding Pakistan's nuclear assets, procedural protections that require at least the "two-man rule," the SPD Personnel Reliability Programme, and the ability to protect fixed locations against most realistic terrorist threats suggest that in peacetime the Pakistani nuclear arsenal that is in the custody of the Army ought to be relatively secure.
• Now, for the potentially bad news. As Gregory, Khan, and Mowatt-Larssen all suggest, the primary risk to the Pakistani Army's ability to safely secure nuclear assets in its custody would likely be during crisis scenarios -- either against India or due to a perceived Western threat to the integrity of Pakistan's arsenal -- that might cause Pakistan to move to a higher state of nuclear readiness.

Film Challenges High Schoolers to Address Threat of Nuclear Weapons – Greenwich Citizen [link]

• Filmmaker Ben Millstein, a student at Northwestern University, recently screened his short film, “Nuke.” 
• In the film, Millstein explores four questions about our nuclear age: what's the problem with today's system for keeping nukes under control; what are the major nuclear threats today; how does the international community deal with this problem and; what can YOU to do help.
• Note: I was interviewed by Ben Millstein for this film. To see my take on Millstein’s four questions, please fast-forward to about 5:00 minutes.

 A View from the Dark Side

Smart Sanctions Can Work Against Iran – Wall Street Journal [link]

• After a fraudulent election and its brutal aftermath, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his junta must now be persuaded that their pursuit of nuclear weapons will be unbearably costly.
• Sens. Evan Bayh, Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl, and Howard Berman in the House, have developed sanctions legislation targeting Iran's economic Achilles' heel—the regime's dependence on foreign gasoline imports for up to 40% of its domestic needs.