Just "Imagine," or Trust But Verify?

Five Things You Need to Read Today

Here is your latest update, for subscribers only, recommending five stories that are worth catching.

1. Just "Imagine"--or Trust But Verify?

So is this peace overture from North Korea for real? Well, maybe. But probably not.

North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-Un has visited South Korea--in itself a first--and proposed to eliminate his country's nuclear weapons program in exchange for a formal end to the Korean War and a guarantee of American non-aggression. If you watched the opening ceremony of this year's Winter Olympics, you have some idea of how starry-eyed and fuzzy-headed the South Koreans are about the possibility of peace and reunification. Let's just say that any time someone drags out that awful old chestnut, "Imagine," you know they've given up thinking rationally.

But the New York Times report on this story describe a somewhat more hard-headed and sensible approach in the Trump White House.

The rest of this article is available only by e-mail to paid subscribers.