North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have never been secret. But the swiftness of their development of nuclear warheads and inter-continental ballistic missiles has surprised many. The bellicose rhetoric of US President Donald Trump, and missile tests of North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, are testing long-held alliances, but experts remain concerned, not alarmed.
“This is a two-decade long nuclear crisis,” Dr Andray Abrahamian tells Martin McKenzie-Murray. “They’ve explicitly communicated their goals,” he says. “Kim’s provocations are in part designed to test these alliances. There’s some fracture now, following Trump’s statements, but it’s precisely what Kim Jong-un wants. It’s a gift to him.”
Plus: Richard Cooke on the right’s push to embrace the political model that split America, Paul Bongiorno on the Coalition’s energy tensions, and Mike Seccombe on the “Yes” campaign.
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The Saturday Paper
