During his visit to South Korea, Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but it was cancelled two hours before it was supposed to happen, the Washington Post reported and the State Department has now confirmed.
“North Korea dangled a meeting in hopes of the Vice President softening his message, which would have ceded the world stage for their propaganda during the Olympics.”
— Nick Ayers, the vice president’s chief of staff
Why it matters: Pence took a far more hardline tone against the North Koreans during his trip to Asia, the Post says, in contrast to "the image of progress being promoted by the South Koreans, who would also have been eager to involve the United States in direct talks with the North."
Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty at a D.C. district court Tuesday following charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. Van der Zwaan's plea comes after allegations that he lied to the FBI in a November 2017 meeting at Mueller's office in D.C. about his communications related to a report his law firm had prepared on the trial of a Ukrainian politician.
The details: Van der Zwaan was allegedly in talks with Rick Gates, and "Person A," who a Mueller associate identified on Tuesday as one of Manafort and Gates' colleagues based in Ukraine.
The believed Russian cyber-espionage group Fancy Bear, best known for hacking a variety of political targets during the 2016 election, turned its focus to Middle Eastern and Asian targets in the second quarter of 2017, according to a new report from Kaspersky Lab.
The intrigue: Fancy Bear is primarily known for attacks against NATO and former Soviet states, with a smattering of attacks against Russian antagonists mixed in. The shift to Middle Eastern and Asian targets would signify a change in priority for the Russian government.
The parliament of the Maldives has extended a 15-day state of emergency — originally set to expire on Tuesday — by 30 days at the request of President Abdulla Yameen, reports Al Jazeera.
Why it matters: The extension follows a second week of mass protests over Yameen's decision to arrest two Supreme Court justices, who drew the president's ire after overturning the convictions of nine of his political enemies. Parliamentary opposition has called the extension "illegal and void" due to a lack of quorum.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presented in his speech to the UN security council a Palestinian proposal for re-launching peace talks with Israel. In a relatively moderate speech, Abbas proposed holding an international peace conference in mid-2018, which would be the starting point for a new round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
But, but, but: Abbas, who has said the U.S. can never mediate a peace deal after Trump's embassy move, left the security council room right after he finished his speech and didn't wait to listen to U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley. In her speech, Haley called on Abbas to return to the negotiating table. She said Jared Kushner and special envoy Jason Greenblatt — president Trump's "Peace team" — "are ready to talk, but we will not chase after you".
Local Serbian TV stations report that police are still holding two Americans from Florida for allegedly using a drone to film military facilities in Belgrade, though two Ukrainian women arrested with them were released earlier on Tuesday. The Serbian Ministry of Defense confirmed the arrests on Monday.
The backdrop: The news follows several other security-related issues in Serbia involving foreigners. An American was reportedly arrested earlier this month in possession of a firearm, and "pro-government media alleged that he was a former Navy SEAL and had planned the assassination of unidentified Serbian officials," per the AP.
Researchers at FireEye say a newly profiled group they nicknamed APT 37 or Reaper is now targeting Japan, Vietnam and the Middle East, including targets in a bevy of industries. It had until recently been focused on South Korea. FireEye believes Reaper is North Korean.
Between the lines: North Korea runs several separate hacking operations, including the prominent (and distinct) Lazarus Group known for hacking Sony. Reaper is known to have used a previously undiscovered security flaw in Flash during an attack. Since such unknown security problems are not cheap to research, this suggests the group is fairly well resourced.
Alex van der Zwaan, who was charged in Special Counsel Bob Mueller's probe Friday with making false statements to the FBI, has ties to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates.
The links: According to the New York Times, Manafort arranged five years ago for a New York-based law firm to draft a report on how Manafort's client, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was justified in his prosecution of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Manafort was tasked with recruiting van der Zwaan to write that report, and van der Zwaan worked for Skadden at the time it was drafting the report, per Bloomberg.
In a surprise move, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and special envoy Jason Greenblatt will attend Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech this morning at the UN Security Council in New York, Western diplomats told me. Kushner and Greenblatt are the two most senior members of the White House's "Peace Team."
Why it matters: Abbas' speech at the UNSC session on the Middle East, which will start at 10am ET, is part of the Palestinian campaign against President Trump's decision last year to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Iran's Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaie said Monday that Tel Aviv would "be razed to the ground if the Israeli regime took any military action against the Islamic Republic," CNN reports.
Why it matters: Tensions between the two countries have escalated as the war in Syria is "spilling over into a wide proxy fight," per CNN. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country "will act without hesitation to defend ourselves, and we will act, if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."
ABC News is planning an hourlong special in primetime in mid-April to showcase George Stephanopoulos' interview with James Comey, the first before the April 17 publication of the former FBI director's book, "A Higher Loyalty."
