What threatens North Korean leader Kim Jong-un?

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is very sober and is taking logical, necessary moves to maintain the regime's survival.

That is the opinion in an article for Foreign Policy magazine by Professor Andrei Lankov from Seoul National University, an expert on the DPRK.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: Novorossia Today

Professor Lankov assessed: "North Korea's behavior may seem unusual from the outside, but in fact the Kim regime is making logical moves necessary for survival."

In the West, people often think that leader Kim Jong-un is crazy when he threatens the US with nuclear war, executes generals and spends huge amounts of money to develop nuclear weapons in the context of a poor economic model. However, author Andrei Lankov describes Kim as an "uncompromising rationalist" whose goal is to prevent his family from losing power.

Professor Lankov points out three key threats that Kim Jong-un faces.

The first is the potential attack from abroad. The harsh lesson for the DPRK is Libya, which in 2003 abandoned its nuclear program because it believed in the promised benefits of the West, but it all ended in war and the humiliated body of the tragically dead leader Gaddafi.

The second threat is the possibility of a military coup at home. Kim Jong-un has every reason to believe that his generals are plotting against him. This is compounded by massive purges, as well as the death at Kuala Lumpur International Airport of North Korean citizen “Kim Chol”.

The threat of a popular uprising is the North Korean leader's third concern. The country's stagnant economy is a serious problem.

Therefore, the measures of the DPRK are risky, but "risky" does not mean "irrational", author Andrei Lankov concludes.

According to Kienthuc.net.vn