Worse, recent remarks by Putin and Kim have brought back the once unthinkable notion of a nation preemptively nuking a neighboring state. Both countries actively blocked such moves led by the U.S. sanctions following North Korean missiles and nuclear tests, are unlikely to do so again this time amid the growing geopolitical rift with the West. Security Council members Russia and China, which supported previous U.N. And I doubt one will be forthcoming even in the wake of a major nuclear test, which is looming. Yet, there has not been a single new United Nations Security Council Resolution passed in response to these serial violations. Panel of Experts on North Korea reported in September. These activities are in “open breach of United Nations sanctions,” as the U.N. In 2022 alone, North Korea has fired over 30 missiles, including six intercontinental ballistic projectiles. It is the dynasty’s “supreme national task,” and there is little to suggest that Kim won’t resort to any length to make that happen. He is deadly serious about completing his grandfather’s and father’s mission of reunification of the Korean peninsula. Take, for example, then-President Donald Trump’s 2017 speech at the United Nations in which he belittled Kim as a “Rocket Man on a suicide mission.”īut as a scholar of Korean history who has watched as the North’s regime has threatened to destabilize the region, I believe Kim must be taken seriously. But his occasional threats to nuke his southern neighbor – South Korea – are greeted by many as little more than buffoonish bellicosity.
Yes, he harbors worrying nuclear bomb ambitions and presides over a desperate state facing widespread hunger. North Korea’s leader strikes many in the West almost as a laughable figure – a narcissistic, well-nourished dictator with, to many, a comical look. There is another reason that Kim’s nuclear threats may sound less ominous, if not entirely hollow.
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