The United States is monitoring North Korea for indications of potential lethal military actions

 

  North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, could take some form of lethal military action against South Korea in the coming months, according to U.S. officials

1.  The officials have assessed that Mr. Kim’s recent harder line is part of a pattern of provocations, but that his declarations have been more aggressive than previous statements and should be taken seriously. While the officials added that they did not see an imminent risk of a full-scale war on the Korean peninsula, Mr. Kim could carry out strikes in a way that he thinks would avoid rapid escalation.

Is Kim Jong Un preparing North Korea for war?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be taking the Korean Peninsula closer to armed conflict, analysts have warned, amid intensifying nuclear threats and tests

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. While threats and angry rhetoric are nothing new from North Korea, the country's recent actions have raised concerns that it may be poised to start yet another conflict. In a historic step, Kim said last week that communist North Korea would no longer pursue reconciliation with South Korea, which have remained technically at war since the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953. Speaking at a Jan. 15 meeting of his rubber-stamp parliament, Kim said that South Korea was the North’s “principal enemy” and that while nuclear-armed North Korea “we have no intention of avoiding it.” He also said he would abolish all government agencies responsible for promoting cooperation and...

What is Kim Jong-un trying to accomplish?

Kim apparently has a longer-term plan that could explain his 2024 provocations, nuclear weapon production, and threats of war

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. Several years ago a leaked North Korean document for training senior military personnel described “The dear supreme commander [Kim] will dominate the world with the nuclear weapons, will make the United States apologize and compensate us for decades of bullying our people, and will declare to the entire world that the world's powerful order will be reshaped by the Juche- not the United States.…”

U.S. officials warn of N.K. 'lethal' military action against S. Korea

U.S. officials have warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could take some form of "lethal" military action against South Korea in the coming months

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. The officials have assessed that Mr. Kim’s recent harder line is part of a pattern of provocations, but that his declarations have been more aggressive than previous statements and should be taken seriously. While the officials added that they did not see an imminent risk of a full-scale war on the Korean peninsula, Mr. Kim could carry out strikes in a way that he thinks would avoid rapid escalation.