Letters | To see what drives North Korea and Kim Jong-un, set biases aside
- North Korea may see denuclearisation of the peninsula in a very different way to the United States
- It needs to be considered whether Pyongyang defaults on international financial commitments because of crippling US-led sanctions
I agree with much of Mr Roy’s analysis. But I object to his built-in bias. Some examples follow.
In fact, this is not a fair exchange, because the US would still have forward deployed forces near enough to continue to pose a threat while North Korea would have no deterrent once it “denuclearised”.
China is backing North Korea because it is in its interest to do so; but also because the US has mishandled the situation and is – in China’s eyes – being “unreasonable”.
Fifth, it seems obvious that Kim’s strategy now is to either get much of what he wants or wait out Donald Trump’s term for a more “reasonable” administration.
Analysing this conundrum from a biased perspective may lead to incorrect conclusions.
Mark J. Valencia, adjunct senior scholar, National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Haikou, China