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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat Kim Jong Un Wants From Trump
The United States is playing North Koreas game. Heres why thats dangerous.
By VAN JACKSON April 30, 2018
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What Kim Wants
When Kim came to power in 2011, after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, he inherited not only the family-run North Korean dictatorship, but also the Kims longstanding goal of reunifying the Koreas. Kim has upheld that goal in his rhetoric, both internal and external. While there has never been much detail about what unification is supposed to look like from North Koreas perspective, the prevailing assumption has always been that it does not include a U.S. alliance with South Korea or a U.S. troop presence in the South. North Korean (and even leftist South Korean) propaganda has always portrayed the United States as an obstacle to unification, even though its notion of unification cant possibly be the same as the Souths presumption of absorbing North Korea or extending democratic governance northward. Thats certainly not what Kim has in mind. But because unification is a somewhat abstract aspiration, it also doesnt have a deadline.
Kim has more concrete goals that are evident in North Koreas word and deed, and that happen to also propel North Korea toward the meta-goal of unification, but on terms favorable to the North. Kim has sought to 1) secure his rule against internal challengers, 2) achieve and demonstrate a reliable nuclear deterrent, 3) improve his peoples quality of life, and 4) elevate North Koreas international standing as a nuclear state. Until very recently, his priority has been the first two goals. Having made significant progress on them, with his current charm offensive, Kim is now aiming to do the same for the latter two.
These four priorities, paired with the far-off ambitions of unification, are a logical response to the situation Kim inherited. He faced a legitimacy deficit when he first came to power because he was an inexperienced, Swiss-educated millennial and the youngest son in a culture that privileges the first-born. Many Korea experts expected he wouldnt be up to the job and, as a consequence, wouldnt be long for this world. But Kim almost immediately set about killing and purging a long list of senior North Korean officialsmore than 300, by one estimateincluding executing his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was widely seen as the No. 2 man in the North at the time. It was never clear if this reign of terror was a sign of Kims strength or insecurity, but the body count suggests hes made progress in girding himself against internal rivals, real or imagined.
The same can be said of nuclear weapons. It was absurd to expect that Kimwith initially precarious control over the countrywould or could trade away the one thing that ensures the United States doesnt invade. Nukes play a central role in how North Korea thinks about its own security against the outside world. There is no North Korean theory of security without nuclear weaponsthey believe it is the only thing that will ultimately protect them from the United States. Whats more, North Koreas nuclear weapons program has birthed a large bureaucratic and elite constituency in Pyongyangan entire nuclear industry of scientists, engineers and warfighters, and a corresponding maintenance and supply chain. The resource and human capital commitment to North Koreas nuclear weapons enterprise means denuclearization could generate internal enemies, especially if declared by an unproven leader.
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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/30/what-kim-jong-un-wants-from-trump-218115