Kim’s charm offensive should keep his gen neralsn happy and him in control

While raising hopes for denuclearisation and a peace treaty to finally end the Korean War, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s newly found focus on diplomacy comes with an ironic flipside: It could be a godsend for his generals.

Kim’s thinking on how his military fits into his plans to foster detente on the Korean peninsula and negotiate security guarantees from Washington may become clearer when he sits down with President Donald Trump next week in Singapore.

But one thing is already clear. Kim cannot survive without his loyal troops.

Whatever grand strategy he has in mind will strongly reflect their interests — and that includes the ability to make lots of money.

Along with the nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles that have got the world’s attention, the Korean People’s Army is deeply involved in everything from raising mushrooms and apples to running its national airline and selling the country’s mineral resources abroad.

So they stand to benefit greatly if Kim succeeds in depleting support for sanctions by negotiating with Trump and the North’s affluent neighbours.

Rivalled only by the ruling party itself, with which it is carefully intertwined, the military is the biggest and most formidable organisation in North Korea. It consumes roughly onethird of the country’s annual budget and employs 1 million-plus personnel, making its standing army one of the world’s largest despite the North’s small population of less than 25 million.

Since he took power, Kim has set his sights on simultaneously developing the nation’s nuclear forces and its economy. His current diplomatic overtures to China, Seoul and Washington are based on his claim, laid out to party elites in April, to have already completed the development of his nuclear arsenal. That means it’s time to adopt a new strategic line that emphasises the economy and the strategic use of diplomacy.

Shifts in the economy since Kim assumed power in 2011 have created a growing income gap in the civilian sector and have also contributed to growing disparity within the military ranks, suggests William Brown, an adjunct professor at Georgetown