Kim Jong Un: Is North Korea's leader actually considering war? - BBC News

Kim Jong Un's recent military actions and a significant departure in ideology has worried watchers.

1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, KCNAImage caption, Kim Jong Un's new tone should not be ignored, say expertsBy Frances MaoBBC NewsNorth Korea experts - by nature, a cautious group who seek to avoid sowing panic - have been left reeling by two of their own.

Last week, the two eminent analysts dropped a bomb - so to speak - in stating their belief that the pariah state's leader is preparing for war.

Kim Jong Un has scrapped the bedrock goal of reconciling and re-uniting with South Korea, they said. Instead, he's presenting the North and South as two independent states at war with each other.

"We believe, that like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war," wrote Robert L Carlin, a former CIA analyst and Siegfried S Hecker, a nuclear scientist who's visited the North several times, in an article on specialist site 38 North.

Such a pronouncement set off alarm bells in Washington and Seoul, and a massive debate in North Korea watching circles.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68052515?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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