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For seven years, Kim Jong-un has pursued an in-your-face strategy for building his nuclear arsenal: detonating blasts underground and firing missiles into the sky, all to send the message that his country’s nuclear build-up is irreversible. Now, he appears to be changing his approach, current and former U.S. intelligence officials say, tailoring it to his reading of the man he met for a few hours three months ago in Singapore: President Donald Trump.
Still building weapons
North Korea is making nuclear fuel and building weapons as actively as ever, the publicly available evidence suggests. But he now appears to be borrowing a page from Israel, Pakistan and India: he is keeping quiet about it, conducting no public nuclear demonstrations and creating no crises, allowing Mr. Trump to portray a denuclearisation effort as on track. On Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea will visit the North Korean leader in Pyongyang for their third meeting.
Current and former intelligence officials say that as long as Mr. Kim does not conduct tests, Mr. Trump is unlikely to call out evidence of a continued nuclear build-up. Still, nuclear production continues unabated, satellite photographs and other evidence suggest. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has not persuaded the North Koreans to turn over an inventory of their major nuclear facilities and materials, much less declare how many weapons they possess.
Mr. Kim’s strategy now appears to be simple: mimic Pakistan, which conducted a major nuclear test in 1998 and deflected demands for years that it give up its weapons. The appeal of the Pakistan model is clear. Pakistan suffers few sanctions for its nuclear programme, or its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It has not tested a weapon in 20 years; like North Korea, it has concluded that it has already proved its basic capabilities.NY Times
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/kim-in-a-nod-to-pak-works-to-normalise-nuclear-status/article24972200.ece
