Kim Jong-un could fling missiles our way

North Korea’s unpredictable leader, Kim Jong-un, has once again demonstrated he can be counted on to remind the international community that his dystopian rule in Pyongyang remains a threat regionally and internationally.

Those at risk from the threat include the United States and Canada, which both suffered major casualties during the bloody 1950-53 Korean War launched by North Korea.

Last week, Kim announced another successful nuclear weapons test, this one reportedly more advanced than previous ones.

This latest test was roundly denounced by South Korea and Japan, as well as the U.S., Britain, France and Australia. Even North Korea’s traditional supporter, China, criticized the test.

During a television interview in Ottawa Sept. 9, Japanese ambassador Kenjiro Monji said the nuclear test violated UN sanctions against Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons program. He said Tokyo is counting on UN members, including Canada, to voice their strong opposition.

While Kim has been ridiculed for such things as his bouffant hair style and unabashed fondness for American basketball star Dennis Rodman, he has never hesitated to demonstrate his ruthlessness against anyone perceived to be a danger to his rule or insufficiently loyal.

Since his accession to power, numerous North Korean officials and senior military officers have been accused of spurious crimes and then quickly executed, some allegedly by artillery. Among those executed was Kim’s uncle by marriage, who, as a regime insider, reportedly played a key role in facilitating Kim’s takeover of power following his father’s death.

(Interestingly, Kim’s aunt, suddenly a widow, was inexplicably given a significant role in a new position of the ruling party by her nephew. Some suggested that any grief experienced by her husband’s execution might have been lessened by his allegedly well-known philandering.)

Many familiar with the violence endemic within despotic societies might regard Kim’s use of terror tactics as typical of despots, but some students who attended the same private school in Switzerland when Kim studied there under an assumed name, recall him being an authoritarian individual who didn’t accept being challenged by anyone.

Notwithstanding the fact that Kim never hesitates to use terror measures to keep followers and the population under rigid control, the decision to develop an offensive nuclearweapons program was not his. It originated with his father and grandfather.

There’s a game of high-stakes poker being played between North Korea and South Korea and its allies, particularly the U.S., which has a large contingent of ground troops stationed there. North Korea’s combined nuclear arms and long-range missile programs actually reduce the military options available to Pyongyang’s adversaries.

Because of South Korea’s vulnerability to a direct attack from across the border, neither Seoul nor Washington can realistically contemplate attacking North Korea, because South Korea, including its capital Seoul, is only an hour away from the massive North Korean army and the North Korean air force that is capable of being rapidly deployed.

In addition, anything seriously destabilizing the north’s economy could result in the nightmare of a massive flood of North Koreans fleeing into South Korea.

Believing neither South Korea nor the U.S. could risk large-scale military action, Pyongyang continues both its nuclear and long-range missile program. Reportedly, that means Kim will eventually will be able to launch nuclear missiles supposedly capable of reaching American cities and Canada’s west coast.

North Korea has maintained it would be willing to renew multilateral talks on an agreement to freeze its nuclear weapons development in exchange for other key commitments by the U.S. and South Korea. That would ultimately include a non-aggression commitment between the U.S. and North Korea, but such a prospect so far seems remote because of U.S. opposition to such an agreement.

For there to be any conclusion to the endless tension on the Korean Peninsula, both sides will have to change their current policies and actions.

If they cannot, the risks such tension could some day unleash, whether knowingly or accidentally, could have unpredictable consequences in East Asia and beyond.

It’s an extremely ominous prospect, and some in North Korea might already be concerned about that prospect — two senior officials from Pyongyang recently sought asylum in South Korea.