Episode description

North Korea’s nuclear program is racing forward. The regime tested a Pukguksong-2 missile on Sunday and leader Kim Jong-Un made a big show of ordering the missiles into mass production. Ankit Panda, host of the podcast The Diplomat, joins Lindsay Beyerstein to talk about North Korea’s nuclear strategy. Mainstream media pundits often portray Korean leadership as erratic and irrational, but Kim’s nuclear strategy is anything but haphazard, Panda says.

What kind of nuclear conflict is North Korea envisioning? What can their arsenal already do?

The Trump administration has promised a new approach to North Korea, but officials have struggled to articulate what that means. Is the era of “Strategic Patience” really over?

Recommended reading:

• With DHS Position, Clarke Would Be the First ‘Patriot’ Leader to
  Hold a Federal Post, by David Neiwert for The Southern Poverty
  Law Center, 2017
• A David Clarke dossier, by Radley Balko for the
  Washington Post, 2017