Is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about to go to war with South Korea and the United States? Some experts think it's possible.
Kim has ordered his military to prepare for the occupation of South Korea, and is, according to some, engaged in "frantic military development."
And after South Korea and the United States began the Freedom Shield 24 exercises, designed to deter a North Korean invasion, it only caused Kim to issue more threats of war.
The task of North Korean experts has always been to try to separate bluster from real threats. And in the past, it's almost always been bluster.
Bong Young-shik at Seoul's Institute for North Korean Studies believes it's bluster, meant to undermine the current South Korean government "from winning parliamentary elections in April."
A disturbing report earlier this year by the respected 38 North website, however, indicates that this time Kim may be serious. 38 North covers North Korea exclusively and reports, "Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war" because the communist government sees a window of opportunity to forcibly re-unify the Korean peninsula.
If the report is true, Asia expert Gordon Chang believes it could be part of a wider Asian war.
"I think that North Korea wouldn't go to war unless it got the approval of both Moscow and Beijing," Chang told CBN News. "So probably if North Korea were to attack South Korea, it would be in conjunction with China attacking Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, India."
Concerns about North Korea's nuclear program have grown in the past two years as the regime has test-launched missiles at a record pace and openly threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States.
Chang is not sure he agrees that North Korea is preparing for war but says if it does, the blame falls on the White House for appearing weak.
"There is an important part of this article that I believe is absolutely true, and that is the authors maintain that Kim Jong Un believes that the United States is in global retreat and that essentially he can pretty much do what he wants. That is a very dangerous mentality. I believe the authors are right about Kim's thinking. And this is a thinking that also affects Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The United States needs to reestablish deterrence because, at this moment, the bad actors think that they have a green light," Chang said.
Kim Jong Un did something very strange a few weeks ago. While touring North Korea's impoverished countryside, he said publicly he's "ashamed and sorry" for neglecting the economy. It was very uncharacteristic of a leader with a reputation for being ruthless.
It could mean Kim finally has a heart, or it could mean that he knows a stronger economy will be needed if he's going to fight a war.
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