CIA Labels North Korea's Kim Jong-un a "Very Rational Actor"

[AZJoe]

CIA Labels North Korea's Kim Jong-un a "Very Rational Actor"

A top CIA official called North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un a “very rational actor” who doesn’t want a war with the United States … “The last person who wants conflict on the [Korean peninsula] is Kim Jong-un,” Yong Suk Lee, the deputy assistant director of the CIA’s newly created Korea Mission Center, told a Washington audience Wednesday. …

“We have a tendency in this country and everywhere else to kind of underestimate the conservatism that runs in these authoritarian regimes, and it’s probably the greatest circuit-breaker in any kind of conflict,” he said, adding that, all “bluster and rhetoric aside,” Mr. Kim has “no interest in going toe to toe” with the U.S. military and its allies. …

But the CIA’s Mr. Lee, speaking at he CIA Ethos & Profession of Intelligence conference, an annual event at George Washington University, said that Mr. Kim’s “long-term goal” is “to come to some kind of big-power agreement with the United States and remove U.S. forces from the peninsula.”

CIA Deputy Assistant Director for East Asia Michael Collins and Ambassador Joseph DeTrani, the former U.S. special envoy to talks on North Korea, agree with Mr. Lee that Pyongyang’s goal is not to launch such a missile at the U.S., but to achieve legitimacy and broader freedom of action on the Korean peninsula, where U.S. troops have been positioned in South Korea since the early 1950s.

The North Koreans “see the U.S. objective in the region as regime change [in Pyongyang], and they’re talking about survival,” said Mr. DeTrani. “They want to survive, and they feel with these nuclear weapons no one’s going to mess with them.”

“Are they going to use [the weapons]?” he said. “No, they’re not suicidal.”

Mr. Collins said the North Korea crisis also is part of a larger strategic challenge for Washington — “the management of China’s rise in Asia.” …

[enhanced_deficit]

To be fair, the agency probably labels itself a "ractional actor" too.. spreading good around the world.

[nikcers]

“the management of China’s rise in Asia.” …

The MSM tells me that war with China is inevitable. I wonder if when we publicly threaten NK if its dogwhistle threatening China. Maybe Trump is the most militaristic president we will ever see. We didn't spend 700B on the military to fight NK.

[r3volution 3.0]

He clearly is rational.

Anyone saying otherwise is trying to lay the groundwork for a call to war.

i.e. "He's irrational, we can't rely on MAD like with the Soviets, Chinese, etc, he can't be allowed to have nuclear weapons...[bomb them]"

[Weston White]

[Weston White]

[Todd]

To be fair, in the entire Nation state system that rule applies virtually everywhere. There have been few Non-rational actors on the world stage. Hitler's Germany being the one exception International relations theorists usually point to. That's why everyone always tries to link today's crazy leaders to that regime.

[enhanced_deficit]

Supporters of SWC Bush might see it as controversial.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Of course he's rational. N Korea has been playing this game for decades for the above stated reasons. The guy is also China's puppet. The real leverage he has is China's fear of refugees.

“the management of China’s rise in Asia.” …

Gee, people say the US government lied about this objective in Vietnam, and here we are again. I guess all that history is just nostalgia though.