"There are those who would draw a sharp line between power politics and a principled foreign policy based on values. This polarized view - you are either a realist or devoted to norms and values - may be just fine in academic debate, but it is a disaster for American foreign policy. American values are universal."
- Condoleezza Rice

"Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government does it to somebody else. This is the idea behind foreign policy."
- P. J. O'Rourke

"I think that America's recovery of a global strategic view is an absolutely essential element of our foreign policy."
- Henry Kissinger

N.Korea's Rocket Launch Pad 'Ready for Use'

english.chosun.com
A missile launch pad along the western coast of North Korea as well as a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri are being refurbished for use again.
Satellite photos of North Korea's missile launch pad in Tongchang-ri taken on Dec. 7, when the North announced it had conducted a "very important test," were virtually identical to one taken in July 2018, before promised dismantlement began.
During his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore in June of last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to shut down the test site and actually dismantled a mobile structure and a testing facility nearby.
But the North began rebuilding the facility after a second summit with Trump in February this year collapsed, and the facility is now ready for use.
Nick Hansen, a military expert at Stanford University, told VOA that North Korea probably stored the parts in order to reassemble them later.
The website 38 North at Johns Hopkins University, meanwhile, said satellite images show the "presence of vehicle tracks in the snow cover" at the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility, which North Korea dramatically blew up in May 2018.
A satellite photo of the facility taken on Nov. 18 shows no vehicles or personnel. But another picture from last week shows vehicle tracks and human footprints in the snow that lead to a "small assembly area."
"The precise nature of this latest activity is unclear, but does suggest, at the very least, that personnel remain onsite at the complex," it said.

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Personal Email: d[email protected]
Phone: 202-573-8647
Web Site:  www.fdd.org
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
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FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.


If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."