KIM JONG-UN, MISSILES AND NUCLEAR ARMS

KIM WON’T TALK ON N KOREA’S NUCLEAR ARMS, DIA CHIEF SAYS

Tony Capaccio and Sangwon Yoon

Bloomberg, April 18, 2013

Dictator Kim Jong Un, “firmly in control” of the North Korean regime, isn’t prepared to negotiate about ending his nuclear and missile programs, according to the Pentagon’s top intelligence official.

North Korea is “no longer willing to negotiate over eliminating its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in testimony prepared for a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing later today.

While Kim’s threats of missile launches and nuclear tests “leave North Korea more isolated economically and diplomatically, we believe North Korea’s intent ultimately is to convince the United States of the futility of continued sanctions and force the U.S. back to negotiations on terms more favorable to North Korea,” Flynn wrote in a statement obtained by Bloomberg News.

Flynn’s testimony comes a day after Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.S. won’t “come to the table” for negotiations “without some pretty ironclad concept on how we’re going forward on the denuclearization.”

The DIA chief wrote that North Korea is “convinced of its need to possess nuclear weapons as a guarantor of its national security,” and “is more likely now to push for negotiations over security guarantees, a peace treaty and elimination of economic sanctions.”

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