Kim Jong-un has already decided to send his country to war with South Korea as the North Korean leader has sent warnings” far beyond” what he usually deploys, experts have warned.
On New Year’s Eve, Kim warned that war is a “realistic reality” as he lamented the “confrontational military actions by the enemy forces.”
His comments came as tensions with neighbouring South Korea continued to simmer.
While Kim has been known to make extreme threats, two experts believe that Kim’s latest warnings should be taken seriously.
Former State Department official Robert L. Carlin and nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker published an essay earlier this month warning that Kim “has decided to go to war.”
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But this line of thinking is “the result of a fundamental misreading of Kim’s view of history and a grievous failure of imagination that could be leading (on both Kim’s and Washington’s parts) to a disaster”, they said.
North Korea’s leader also warned recently that reunification with South Korea, a long-term desire of Pyongyang, is now “impossible.”
It has been reported that North Korea demolished a major monument in its capital that symbolized the goal of reconciliation with South Korea.
Satellite imagery appeared to show the huge arch in Pyongyang had been torn down. Kim had previously described the monument as an eyesore.
