Let me be very clear - Kim Jong-Un is a despot who runs a totalitarian regime which is accused of committing crimes against humanity on a scale without parallel in the contemporary world.
This is not a fan note.
He is also not an idiot.
There has been a tendency to portray Kim Jong-Un as a cartoon villain - a caricature of a petty madman, with a bad haircut.
But what if he knows exactly what he is doing - and his logic is perfectly sound?
Look at this from his perspective, and just go with me on this.
Let's assume that Kim Jong-Un is not pursuing nuclear weapons because he wants to take over the world - this is not Team America World Police.
He wants a viable nuclear warhead, capable of hitting the US mainland, to ensure that a) no-one attacks him, and b) the major powers have to negotiate with him on an equal basis, as a fellow member of the nuclear club.
He has seen what happens to dictators without nuclear weapons - Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein - and he doesn't want to end his days in a drainage ditch, or in a noose.
The number one goal of the Kim regime is the survival of the Kim regime.
It's already working on a smaller scale with his existing arsenal.
The reason he, and frankly most people here in Seoul where I am writing this, don't believe the United States will launch a military attack on Pyongyang, is because of the likelihood of retaliation.
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