Fire and Fury. Locked and Loaded. Dumb and Dumber… It’s been a long and stressful week of increasingly heated rhetoric (that threatens to weaken the unanimously-backed sanctions) when it comes to the US and North Korea. But as AP reports, beyond the bluster, the two sides are in contact.

+ Interesting analysis from WaPo: If Trump wants a nuclear attack against North Korea, his military advisers have few other options.

+ “The North Koreans will never give up their program. This is an impoverished, authoritarian country, and this is their insurance policy. At same time, they will never use it. They know it will be the end. And they’re not suicidal.” Robin Wright: The Way Out of Trump’s Ad-Lib War with North Korea.