The September 18, 2017 New Yorker had a very good article about Kim Jong Un by Evan Osnos. He made the point that we really have no idea what motivates him (or perhaps more importantly, would deter him). And, or course Kim Jong Un will have the same problem viewing Washington. We experienced similar ignorance about Saddam in 2002-3. Only afterwards did we learn a great deal about his incentives, goals, etc. Wisdom can come late and at great cost. It’s important to recognize that we are very ignorant about what Kim sees as a plus or a minus–and vice versa. Below is a letter I sent regarding this article and published in the New Yorker of October 16, 2017.
TRUMP VS. KIM JONG UN
I directed the Iraq Survey Group, which detailed the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and, more important, the internal dynamics of Saddam Hussein’s regime (“On the Brink,” September 18th). Reading Evan Osnos’s report about Kim Jong Un and North Korea, I noticed some striking parallels. Saddam made assumptions about President Bush and Washington that were wildly off the mark; he did not know what motivated Washington, and Washington did not know what motivated him. So it is now with Kim and Donald Trump. Osnos notes that there is no U.S. Embassy in Pyongyang. Similarly, the U.S. closed its Embassy in Iraq in 1990 and reopened it only after the invasion of 2003. This dramatically limited the number of Americans who had any contact with Iraqis inside Iraq. The quality of U.S. decisions—and the understanding of the public—suffered from that. The same will be true of North Korea.
Charles Duelfer
Fairfax, Va.
One Response to Kim Jong Un – We have no clue what motivates/deters him….