Analysts see a “clarity of purpose” to Kim Jong Un’s actions, despite small margin for error
Despite Kim Jong Un’s repeated provocations and willingness to engage in heated rhetoric, top U. S. intelligence officials say the North Korean leader is not crazy.
“Kim Jong Un is a very rational actor,” the deputy assistant director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Korea Mission Center said Wednesday.
“Bluster and rhetoric aside, Kim Jong Un has no desire to go toe to toe with [U. S. and South Korea’s] combined forces command,” Yong Suk Lee said at a CIA-sponsored intelligence conference in Washington.
“Kim Jong Un wants what all authoritarian rulers want … to rule for a long time and die peacefully in his own bed,” Lee said.
At odds with Trump view
The intelligence assessment would appear to run counter to the rhetoric being used by U. S. President Donald Trump.
In a series of tweets, Trump has referred to the North Korean leader as “Little Rocket Man,” and, in one tweet last month, said Kim Jong Un was “obviously a madman.”
Lee and other CIA officials, however, believe there has been a “clarity of purpose” to the way the North Korean ruler is acting on the world stage.
Pyongyang’s goal, they say, is to gain recognition as a major nuclear power and eventually negotiate a deal with the United States that sees American forces leave the Korean peninsula.
