Experts say Kim’s fiery talk and defiance of the international community masks a core fact: His pursuit of a nuclear program is designed to establish the legitimacy of his regime inside North Korea and to gain international stature.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said last week that the consensus in the intelligence community is that Kim is “rational” — even though some comments from North Korea may not seem so.

More: ‘Established fact’: North Korea says nuclear war on Korean Peninsula inevitable

More: From good to bad: 5 possible options for what’s next in North Korea-U.S. standoff

More: Kim Jong Un is cruel and dangerous but not crazy, North Korean experts say

The joint military exercises being conducted by the United States and South Korea involving hundreds of warplanes “are creating a touch-and-go situation on the Korean Peninsula,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said late Wednesday. “The remaining question now is: When will the war break out.”

Kim has had a lengthy exchange of personal insults with President Trump, and North Korea’s many missile launches prompted Trump to call Kim “rocket man.”

“Kim certainly is acting rationally and predictably if his objective is to secure his hold on power,” said Sheila Miyoshi Jager, a professor at Oberlin College and author of Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea.

North Korea’s test last month established that the isolated nation had built a missile capable of reaching Washington, D.C., and other East Coast cities. Both its missile and warhead technology are advancing rapidly, as Pyongyang shows no sign of backing off its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Kim believes nuclear weapons serve as a deterrent and provide economic leverage for North Korea, Jager said. Kim fears he will go the way of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi — both gave up their nuclear weapons programs and were overthrown.

If North Korea does eventually come to the negotiating table, it would rather be as an established nuclear power so it could make economic demands in return for curtailing its program or signing non-aggression treaties.

In 1994, for example, the United States agreed to provide North Korea with so-called light water reactors and provided other economic incentives in return for abandoning its nuclear program. The deal eventually fell apart, but North Korea would still be interested in similar economic incentives today.

Kim also believes that the threat of a nuclear attack on the United States might force Washington to rethink its commitment to defend South Korea if attacked. North Korea’s ultimate goal is to reunify the peninsula.

“Would the U.S. trade destruction of L.A., Seattle or Chicago (in order) to defend Seoul?” Jager asked. “Perhaps, but from Kim’s perspective, it’s definitely worth pursuing, because it is the only realistic way to achieve the ‘final victory.’”

Even Kim’s brutality against his own people is calculated. He was relatively unknown and untested when he came to power in 2011 and not yet 30 years old. He is the third generation of his family to rule the country.

“Many people thought he was too young and inexperienced to rule,” Jager said. “He came into power with something to prove.”

He turned to violence to quickly prove himself. Kim ordered his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, executed about a year after coming into power, according to the South Korean intelligence service.

He is also suspected of ordering the killing of his exiled half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, a potential rival who was poisoned with a toxic nerve agent in Malaysia in February.

“In the long history of purges instigated by both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, none ever involved the killing of close family members,” Jager said.

“He’s vengeful, ruthless, and he knows how to wield power through terror,” she said. “But it also shows that Kim plays by his own rules.”

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/07/kim-jong-un-crazy-north-korea-leader-just-cold-calculator-experts-say/930356001/

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The nation says its five-year space development program is aimed at helping to improve its economy.

“Some countries have manipulated U.N. sanctions resolutions against us and hindered the sovereign country’s space development. It is not a tolerable act,” the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said. “It is a global trend that a country seeks the economic growth with the space program.”

The plan to launch satellites is seen as an attempt by Pyongyang to build a case to potentially launch a long-range rocket, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. The North fired long-range rockets in 2012 and 2016.

Ballistic missiles and the rockets used to launch satellites have similar bodies, engines and other technology.

North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador Kim In Ryong announced North Korea’s plan for 2016-2020 to develop “practical satellites that can contribute to the economic development and improvement of the people’s living” at a U.N. General Assembly committee meeting earlier this month.

He said the U.S. was “going frantic to illegalize our development of outer space,” by claiming it violated U.N. sanctions.

Kim said no U.N. article states that satellite launches threaten international peace and security, “nor is there any article stipulating that one cannot use ballistic rocket technology in launching a satellite.”

“The U.S. is the country that launched the largest number of satellites and yet it claims that our launch of satellites is a threat to international peace and security,” Kim said. “This is a preposterous allegation and extreme double standards.”

Kim said North Korea launched its first pilot communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-1, in August 1998. He said his country “entered the practical satellite developing stage” with the successful entry into orbit of Kwangmyongsong-4 in February 2016.

North Korea has not made any provocations since it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3. Earlier in the summer, it launched missiles over Japan and test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that Chinese police arrested two North Korean agents in Beijing on suspicion of plotting to murder Kim Han Sol, the 22-year-old nephew of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Han Sol’s father Kim Jong Nam — Kim Jong Un’s half-brother — was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia on Feb. 13. Two women are currently on trial for murder, which they deny. Four other suspects including the alleged mastermind of the plot remain at large.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/30/north-korea-vows-launch-more-satellites-into-orbit/812313001/

The post North Korea vows to launch more satellites into orbit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.