North Korea¡¯s leader Kim Jong Un will draw a dangerous conclusion from the U.S. and Israel¡¯s strikes on Iran: Nuclear weapons are the ultimate guarantor of regime survival.
Pyongyang has condemned the operation that killed Iran¡¯s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, calling the attacks shameless and an illegal act of aggression. U.S. President Donald Trump justified the war by arguing that Tehran was close to developing a nuclear weapon, an assertion Iran denies.
North Korea¡¯s nuclear program is far more advanced than Iran¡¯s. It has conducted multiple tests and is widely assessed to have assembled dozens of warheads. The Iran crisis will likely reinforce a belief that American administrations have form when it comes to targeting hostile autocrats who don¡¯t have their own powerful arsenal as protection. Kim will recall the fate of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi. Commentaries in North Korea¡¯s state media have argued that a nuclear deterrent is essential to avoid suffering the same destiny.
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