In 1950 Kim Il-sung assured Stalin that his planned attack on South Korea would lead to total victory in 72 hours. Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953 For instance, she ignores pressuring China, the North’s primary backer, which is the one tactic that might actually convince Kim he has no choice but to deal with the international community in good faith.Īs Pak tells us, Kim is bold. Pak’s important discussion of policy, unfortunately, sticks to conventional approaches. If Washington policymakers are to accomplish that, they will have to adopt new tactics as the old ones have obviously not been working. “We have to shape and constrain his ambitions and illusions,” Pak writes. Washington must do more than just disarm Kim. As Pak notes, the North’s jangmadang - market generation - is demanding prosperity, regime officials are demanding the continuation of privileges and the United States is demanding disarmament. Pak perceptively recognizes Kim’s limitations, comparing him to Icarus “flying too close to the sun” by “making promises that he can’t fulfill.” At some point, Kim will have to deliver on those promises. Yet perhaps Kim has now reached the end of the line. He has purged more than 340 senior regime figures since late 2013, executing many. Kim is fond of the brazen move and has made plenty of them, some murderous. How did he accomplish so much? Not by being timid, Pak explains. Since the sudden death of his predecessor and father in December 2011, Kim has not only held onto power but has also changed the direction of the regime, created a fearsome arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and dazzled the international community with diplomatic flair. officer who tells us how Kim Jong-un surprised just about everyone by subduing domestic rivals and keeping foreign adversaries at bay. “How could a 20-something with no known experience in governing a country, much less a nuclear-armed nation with a moribund economy under the tightening noose of sanctions, possibly survive?” That is the question asked by Pak, a former C.I.A. A Former CIA Officer’s Insights Into North Korea’s Enigmatic Young Dictator

Ghost Flames by Charles J. Hanley