Is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rattled by downfalls of Venezuela’s Maduro and Iran’s Khamenei?

Experts said the lesson for Kim may be less about fear than survival. Read more at straitstimes.com.

SEOUL – North Korea’s sharply worded condemnation of recent US strikes on Iran has fuelled debate over whether its leader Kim Jong Un feels unsettled by the dramatic downfalls of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

And experts said the lesson for Mr Kim may be less about fear than survival.

Rather than pushing him towards talks with Washington, such events could reinforce his belief that only a credible nuclear deterrent guarantees regime security – a strategic difference that may embolden, rather than frighten, Pyongyang as it watches both the military action and its political aftermath, they pointed out.

In a statement on March 1 carried by the Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson denounced what it described as “the shameless rogue act of the US and Israel” and “an illegal act of aggression”. The statement avoided mentioning US President Donald Trump by name.

The removal of Maduro in January and the subsequent US-backed operation that eliminated Mr Khamenei marked a rare sequence of regime-toppling actions against leaders openly hostile to Washington.

Some experts say the developments inevitably resonate in Pyongyang and that the back-to-back removals of anti-US leaders complicate Mr Kim’s calculus, particularly regarding whether to accept a potential summit.