SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, has long threatened to "find a new way" if the United States persists with sanctions. And when North Korea announced his "revolutionary" new way Wednesday, the strategy revealed both a defiance and a deep caution in confronting
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has long threatened to “find a new way” if the United States persists with sanctions. And when North Korea announced his “revolutionary” new way Wednesday, the strategy revealed both a defiance and a deep caution in confronting President Donald Trump.
As he waits, Kim can continue to play the role of tough guy, increasing the stakes in his nuclear brinkmanship. North Korea can expand its nuclear arsenal, produce more bomb fuel, build more nuclear warheads and improve its missile capabilities. That moratorium remains the best outcome Trump can cite from his on-and-off diplomacy with Kim — one that the North Korean leader may be wary of yanking away too soon.
Kim also indicated that he was preparing for a “protracted” standoff with Washington, exhorting North Koreans to accept it as “a fait accompli that we have to live under the sanctions.” After 18 months of faltering diplomacy, he said he was convinced that his country should stick to “self-reliance” rather than embracing the “brilliant transformation” of its economy that Trump promised if Pyongyang abandoned its nuclear weapons.
But the deadline also showed how desperately Kim wanted economic relief. By shifting to a harder line, Kim was juggling an increasingly tricky balancing act.
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