Ferocious, Weak and Crazy: The North Korean Strategy

There is brilliance in it, and it just keeps working.

Editor's Note: The following article originally ran in January 2013. We repost it as North Korea's recent alleged H-Bomb test returns it to the spotlight. Its validity is unaltered and, if anything, verified by events.

by George Friedman
January 8, 2016

North Korea's state-run media reported Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the country's top security officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," which has been widely interpreted to mean that North Korea is planning its third nuclear test. Kim said the orders were retaliation for the U.S.-led push to tighten U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang following North Korea's missile test in October. A few days before Kim's statement emerged, the North Koreans said future tests would target the United States, which North Korea regards as its key adversary along with Washington's tool, South Korea.

North Korea has been using the threat of tests and the tests themselves as weapons against its neighbors and …