Two veteran analysts of North Korea — the former State Department official Robert L. Carlin and the nuclear scientist Siegfried S. Hecker — sounded an alarm this past week in an article for the U.S.-based website 38 North, asserting that Mr. Kim was done with mere threats. “Kim Jong-un has made a strategic decision to go to war,” they wrote. But there is still stark disagreement over where Mr. Kim’s new tack might be leading. “The North Koreans won’t start a war unless they decide to become suicidal; they know too well that they cannot win the war,” said Park Won-gon, a North Korea expert at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “But they would love their enemies to believe that they could, because that could lead to engagement and possible concessions, like the easing of sanctions.”

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Persons: Robert L, Carlin, Siegfried S, Hecker —, Mr, Kim, “ Kim Jong, ”, Donald J, Kim’s Organizations: North, State Department, U.S, Trump, Koreans, Ewha Womans University Locations: North Korea, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea, United States, Seoul