PrintApril 12, 2013
Kim Jong Un's Shoes
If you can mentally put yourself in Kim Jong-un's shoes, once you are aware of the constraints he faces you will understand why the South Koreans aren't getting terribly worried about how the current round of threats will end. Far from being crazy, KJU is acting rationally for someone in his position, and he's likely to get what he wants without South Korea or the world erupting into a sea of fire.
The first fact of life for young Kim is that he really isn't running things. He is unable to command and be obeyed on his own because he is too young and lacks a depth of history with all the key constituencies that make up the North Korean regime. We're talking about something much closer to a gangster alliance than a constitutional state when it comes to understanding the dynamics of the North Korean government.
Generals and party appartchiks as power centers abound, each in control of some vital resource, be they guns, sources of revenue (for example the prized counterfeiting and...(Read Full Article)
