From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily.

Today, how Kim Jong-un's surprise New Year's Day call for direct talks with South Korea

could undercut the Trump administration's tough approach to North Korea and

scramble the dynamics between the three countries.

And, Orrin Hatch is leaving the Senate, potentially clearing the way for the return of Mitt Romney.

It's Wednesday, January 3rd.

David, tell us about this New Year's speech that Kim Jong-un gave a couple days ago.

In the same speech, he had two very different messages for the Allied forces, South Korea and the United States.

He did have two messages in this one.

David Sanger has covered North Korea's missile program for decades.

And the first was to the United States.

And he basically said, if you thought we did a lot of missile testing and nuclear testing last year,

this is the year that we're moving to what he called mass production of missiles and nuclear weapons.

The second message, though, wasn't directed at the US. It was directed at South Korea.

And that was unusual because the North Koreans usually ignore the South Koreans.

They dismiss them as sort of lackeys of the United States.

They frequently say they're puppets of the CIA.

And in this case, he said, let's get involved in direct negotiations with the South Koreans about everything, including the upcoming Olympics.

The South Koreans are hosting the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, starting in early February.

And the South Koreans have wanted to see if they could get a North Korean team to come in, not because they're particularly interested in their Olympic skills,

but because they're interested in Kim Jong Un not conducting some act of terror or disruption during the Olympics.

And their theory was that if their own athletes are playing, he's not likely to mess with the games.

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