US News & World Report (January 17)
“Kim Jong Un may try to accelerate the timetable. North Korea’s growing strategic capabilities suggest that Washington – which has long chosen to ignore and minimize the problem posed by Pyongyang – will need to come up with a serious strategy to deal with the DPRK, and do so sooner rather than later.
Tags: Accelerate, Capabilities, DPRK, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Pyongyang, Strategy, Timetable
Washington Post (June 9)
“Kim Jong Un is a weak leader in every respect but one: He pushes ahead relentlessly on a program to build missiles carrying miniaturized nuclear warheads.” It is likely that “the next U.S. president could confront a genuinely dangerous threat from a faraway place: a North Korean missile that could hit U.S. territory with a nuclear warhead.”
Tags: Dangerous, Kim Jong Un, Leader, Missiles, North Korean, Nuclear warheads, Threat, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (June 5)
For North Korea’s “Kim Jong Un and the Chinese banks that sustain his regime, life is suddenly more complicated.” The U.S. designated “the entire country a ‘primary money-laundering concern.’ This is the biggest gun in the arsenal of financial sanctions. If enforced, it will make banks world-wide choose between doing business with North Korea and maintaining access to U.S. dollars.” Welcoming the more stringent designation, the Wall Street Journal writes, “It’s about time.”
Tags: Banks, China, Financial sanctions, Kim Jong Un, Money laundering, North Korea, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 15)
“Put yourself in Kim Jong Un’s Gucci loafers. Your economy is in worse shape than usual, you’re unsure of your grip on power, and you’ve recently executed your fourth defense minister in three years. What’s a young dictator to do?” With the restart of his nuclear reactor, Kim Jong Un may be “angling for his own version of Iran’s nuclear deal,” especially since he knows that once an agreement is reached, “he can then violate it at will without paying too steep a price.”
Tags: Agreement, Dictator, Economy, Iran, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear reactor, Violate
New York Times (August 22)
“Given North Korea’s nuclear weapons arsenal and its erratic leader, Kim Jong-un, any such confrontation must be taken seriously and managed carefully, with the United States and China playing key roles in urging restraint…. As satisfying as it may be to push back against Mr. Kim’s provocations, any reaction by South Korea and the United States must be carefully weighed, with an emphasis on restraint.”
Tags: China, Confrontation, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Restraint, U.S.
Washington Post (May 11)
“China has shown signs of exasperation with North Korea’s enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Un, and if China possesses about 250 nuclear weapons, then its leaders should be unsettled to hear from their own experts that North Korea is ramping up to 50 or even 100 in the next decade. Certainly, China—and only China—has the leverage to halt North Korea’s steady climb to becoming a nuclear power.”
Tags: China, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear weapons
Washington Post (January 6)
North Korea’s regime is incomprehensible to many Americans. “There is something about the harshness and the evil nature of the North Korean regime that defies imagination: It’s so bizarre that it makes us laugh rather than cry.” It shouldn’t. North Korea “imprisons whole families for generations. When food is short, it quietly allows thousands to die off.” Under the rule of Kim Jong Un, reality is stark: “people die of starvation and torture.”
Tags: Bizarre, Evil, Harshness, Imprisons, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Starvation, Torture, U.S.
BBC (December 13, 2013)
The purge and execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle Chang Song-thaek has provided fodder for speculation, such as whether the dramatic events herald a broader purge. “Such a public display of state brutality is unprecedented, but the ultra-secretive nature of the state means that observers can never really claim to know exactly what happened and when,” let alone forecast what will ensue.
Tags: Brutality, Chang Song-thaek, Execution, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Observers, Purge, Secretive, State
Washington Post (April 12, 2013)Washington Post (April 12, 2013)
“One unlikely benefit of the North Korea crisis is that the world may be getting fed up with the country’s pugnacious young leader, Kim Jong Un. In his belligerent talk of war, Kim appears to have crossed a line, upsetting traditional allies such as China and Russia as well as the United States and South Korea.”
Tags: China, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, U.S.
Washington Post (April 6, 2013)
“Pop stars, bourgeois lifestyle commentary and funny videos often seem to interest young South Koreans more than Pyongyang’s latest provocation.” As North Korea tries to “to intimidate its neighbor… South Korea has already won the fight.” Young people do talk about “the risk of a second Korean war. But, even if this week’s chest-thumping has them a bit jittery, they typically mock Kim Jong Un and dismiss his war declaration as hot air. It’s a distraction from more pressing matters — not a particularly high bar for a youth culture obsessed with the latest Korean pop girl group or Samsung gadget.”
Tags: Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Provocation, South Korea, War, Youth
