Analysis: Kim Jong Un wants the world to know he still matters

According to analysts, seven North Korean missile tests in the first four weeks of 2022 suggest the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is both striving to meet domestic goals and show an increasingly turbulent world that Pyongyang remains a player in the struggle for power and influence. “By threatening to destabilize Asia while global resources are stretched thin elsewhere, Pyongyang is demanding the world pay it to act like a ‘responsible nuclear power,'” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.Those seven missile tests have run the gamut, from what is believed to be a hypersonic glide vehicle — potentially one of the most powerful weapons on the planet — to And while Moon has held summits with Kim, a Yoon government could very well just ignore the North Korean leader’s regime, according to Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul.”Conservatives are supporters not so much of a tough position in relations with North Korea as of the maximum disregard for the very fact of the existence of another Korean state,” Lankov wrote on a blog for the Valdai Club, a Russian think tank.Kim certainly got the attention of Moon with Sunday’s IRBM test.The South Korean President said in a statement that the IRBM firing could be considered as a signal the Kim regime is preparing to scrap its moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and nuclear testing.That moratorium has largely kept North Korea out of the international spotlight, but longer range missile tests could reverse that trend.’No fire, no fury’As for the US, President Joe Biden’s administration has largely put North Korea on the back burner, with foreign policy issues like China, Taiwan and most recently Ukraine dominating attention along with the With the Winter Olympics starting in just days in the capital of North Korea’s main ally, China, the world may see Kim take a breather from testing and let his friends in Beijing bask in the international attention.But Pyongyang picking up the weapons testing pace again after the Games may suit Beijing just fine.”For China, as North Korea’s military power increases, the US has to pay more attention to the Korean Peninsula, so it can be expected to have the effect of distracting attention on Taiwan in this region,” said Park Won-gon, associate professor in North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University.If that doesn’t give Kim a seat at the table, it at least gives him a foot in the door — and all the more reason to keep that door swinging wider.