In an interview with NBC News, North Korean defector Thae Yong Ho said the mad dictator Kim Jong Un is “desperate” to hold onto his failing regime, and he sees the development of nuclear weapons as crucial to his continued rule.
Thae, the highest-ranking North Korean official to defect in more than twenty years, said the U.S. should be prepared for anything when it came to Kim Jong Un’s aggression.
“Once he sees that there is any kind of sign of a tank or an imminent threat from America, then he would use his nuclear weapons with ICBM,” he said in the interview.
Thae warned that the Kim regime had “reached a very significant level of nuclear development.”
“If Kim Jong Un has nuclear weapons and ICBMs, he can do anything,” Thae said. “So I think the world should be ready to deal with this kind of person. Kim Jong Un is a man who can do anything beyond the normal imagination. The final and real solution to the North Korean nuclear issue is to eliminate Kim Jong Un from the post.”
Thae said that Kim had learned a lesson from fallen Middle Eastern dictators like Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi – once the U.S. decided it was time for regime change, only the unthinkable threat of mutual destruction could dissuade them.
“That’s why Kim Jong Un strongly believes that only a nuclear weapon can guarantee his rule,” he said.
Since taking office, President Trump and his administration have taken a hard line on North Korea. In an interview with the Financial Times this weekend, Trump said the subject would be central to his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“China has great influence over North Korea,” Trump said. “And China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won’t. If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.”
The president said, however, that the fate of the Kim regime was not in China’s hands.
“If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,” he said.
Wow, will you look at that. A president who isn’t afraid to show a little gumption. We’d almost forgotten what that was like after eight years of “patience” and “prudence” and “we don’t really have a plan, so…”
Tough talk shouldn’t be confused with results, but it’s a start. Now if Trump can just get China’s Xi to recognize the global threat that is a nuclear-armed North Korea, perhaps we can avoid this looming catastrophe.
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