Signs are growing that North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un is preparing for a lethal military attack against South Korea in the upcoming months, according to U.S. officials, who said they do not see an impending threat of a full war on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea had "chosen to continue going down a very negative path," White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer said Thursday at an Asia Society forum in Washington Thursday, reports The New York Times.
Kim's threats are more aggressive than what he's made in the past, according to his provocation patterns, and come after he had already been operating under a policy with open hostility to South Korea, and should be taken seriously, officials commented.
The strikes could be carried out in a way that could avoid full-scale escalation, such as in 2010, when North Korea shelled a South Korean island.
After exchanging artillery fire, resulting in troop casualties on both sides and civilian deaths in the South, the hostilities soon stopped.
Wednesday, North Korea fired several cruise missiles into the sea from its west coast, following an announcement from Kim's government last week that a new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile, equipped with a hypersonic warhead had been tested.
Meanwhile, the North Korean military on Jan. 5 fired artillery shells into the waters near South Korean islands, leaving some residents to seek shelter.
North Korea's state news media announced on Jan. 16 that Kim had decided he would formally abandon the nation's official goal of peaceful reunification with South Korea, after signaling the move for several months.
One day before the announcement, he said that references to unifying with the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, must be removed from the nation's constitution, and specify instead the issue of "completely occupying, subjugating and reclaiming" the nation and annexing it in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula.
Kim has also denounced a security pact announced in August by President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the three-way bloc brought together by the United States of building up military activity and conducting large-scale exercises while preparing for war with North Korea.
The accusations come as Kim has shunned any diplomacy with the United States since 2019, after his talks with then-President Donald Trump failed, and U.S. officials say his growing partnership with Russia is emboldening him.
Jean Lee, a fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, said Kim's statements and policy changes are aimed at destabilizing and creating anxiety. She added that Kim could make strikes on South Korean islands in the West Sea, where a maritime border is disputed.
Meanwhile, two experts on North Korea said in an article this month that the situation in the Korean Peninsula "is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950," when Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, invaded South Korea.
The article claims that North Korea has "made a strategic decision to go to war," but U.S. agencies say they have not seen concrete signs that Kim is gearing up for combat, as North Korea has been sending large numbers of weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine rather than hoarding them to use against the South.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.