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May 12th, 2024 | 12:39 PM ET

Decoding Kim Jong Un: Has the North Korean Leader Chosen War?

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA – SEPTEMBER 19: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO COMMERCIAL USE) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks after watch the gymnastic and artistic performance at the May Day Stadium on September 19, 2018 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim and Moon meet for the Inter-Korean summit talks after the 1945 division of the peninsula, where they will discuss ways to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. (Photo by Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool/Getty Images)
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Posted: February 15th, 2024

By Tom Nagorski

SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING – Has Kim Jong Un decided to go to war? A blizzard of bulletins from North Korea has sparked a debate among Korea-watchers and policymakers, and led some to conclude the answer is Yes. 

“We believe that, like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war,” two highly respected scholars, Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, wrote on the website 38North in January.

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