Kim Jong Un may be threatening the United States with nuclear weapons in a desperate bid to show North Korea’s military he is a worthy successor to his father, the global forecasting and intelligence website LIGNET says.
“The political dynamic of the North Korean system is opaque and difficult for outsiders to understand,’’ LIGNET’s managing editor Fred Fleitz, told Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.’’
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“But there is an understanding that there’s an uneasy relationship between the senior generals and the Kim family. And if the Kim family shows weakness, there always could be some type of effort to overthrow them
“He’s a new leader, he’s establishing himself in power . . . His position is not necessarily secure.’’
In the past week, North Korea — furious at U.N. sanctions and military maneuvers by the U.S. and South Korea — said its military has approval for a possible nuclear attack. As a result, the U.S. has beefed up its missile arsenal in the Pacific.
Fleitz, who worked for the CIA and State Department, said the war of words is getting more dangerous by the minute, and may trigger North Korea into making a desperate move.
“The North Korean regime is running out of threatening actions they can take,’’ he said.
“A lot of experts we’re talking to in Washington are worried that they may be boxing themselves into a corner and be forced to take some type of aggressive action or terrorist action with bombing or they could lose credibility.’’
Fleitz said the North Koreans “don’t think like the rest of normal people. They actually believe this type of behavior will drag their adversaries to the negotiating table and they’ll get concessions. And it’s worked repeatedly.’’
In the past, he said, the United States has shown a weakness towards North Korea. But that has changed.
“Over the last few weeks, we have raced to show strength by flying stealth bombers over South Korea and dropping dummy bombs near the North Korean border [and] putting stealth fighters near moving ships,’’ Fleitz said.
“This rash move by us unnecessarily provoked the North Koreans and made the situation worse.’’
Not helping matters was the move Thursday by activist cyberhackers to break into North Korea’s official news website and post a doctored picture of Kim in which he has pig’s ears and a snout.
Kim replaced his late father Kim Jong Il as North Korea’s supreme leader in 2011.
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