Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 20, 2018

South Korean and US tanks fire live rounds during a joint military exercise near the DMZ on April 21, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji

Andrew Salman, Asia Times: Major diplomatic game afoot as Korean war games cut short

South Korea and the US say annual military drills will start on April 1, as a flurry of multilateral diplomatic activity lays the groundwork for summits to be held in April and May

Washington and Seoul have announced that their annual joint military drills will commence from April 1, while a massive diplomat effort is underway to lay the foundations for two summits designed to resolve issues on the troubled peninsula.

The military drills, involving over 300,000 troops, were delayed because of the 2018 Winter Olympiad, which finished when the Paralympics concluded on March 18. An intensive inter-Korean dialog on the sidelines of the Games resulted in plans for an inter-Korean summit and – according to a South Korean delegation which went to Pyongyang – a promise from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to suspend nuclear and missile tests and to convene a summit with US President Donald Trump.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 20, 2018

The Trump-Kim Summit Is No Game Changer -- Steven Metz, National Interest

300,000 Troops Will Soon Train for War With North Korea (But There's A Big Catch) -- Andrew Salmon, National Interest

Will North Korea's Kim meet with Japanese PM Abe? -- Julian Ryall, DW

Why Crown Prince's US visit is hugely significant -- Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri, Arab News

Britain and the US must stop fuelling the bloody Saudi war on Yemen -- Patrick Wilcken, The Guardian

AP Explains: What’s next after Turkey seizes Syria’s Afrin -- Zeina Karam, AP

15 Years in Iraq: A Shameful Anniversary -- Daniel R. DePetris, The American Conservative

China Upgrades Diplomacy While the U.S. Pulls Back -- Helena Legarda, The Diplomat

African Continental Free Trade Area: What you need to know -- Loes Witschge, Al Jazeera

What hurts Putin? Germany’s defense minister wants to find out -- Sebastian Sprenger, Defense News

UK is infused with Russian money, making a crackdown hard -- Danica Kirka, AP

Mexican leftist's 'big tent' pitch puts presidency in sight -- Dave Graham, Reuters

The Problem Is Facebook, Not Cambridge Analytica -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

Data scandal threatens Zuckerberg vision for Facebook -- AFP

Facebook, Uber and the end of the Great American Tech Delusion -- Spengler, Asia Times