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When the U.S. and Israel lost patience with diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program, they attacked with military force. American presidents had faced a similar choice about North Korea, which, unlike Iran, now is a nuclear power. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul on the different results.
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ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Deputies to North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly stood for the playing of the socialist anthem "The Internationale" at a meeting in March. Kim Jong Un gave a speech that essentially said, at a time when the U.S. is riding roughshod over some countries, implying Venezuela and Iran, North Korea clearly made the right choice to keep building its nuclear arsenal. Former State Department official Joel Wit says Kim must be feeling emboldened.
JOEL WIT: If you look at who's the winner over, you know, the past decade or so of U.S.-North Korean relations, Kim Jong Un clearly wins first prize.
KUHN: Experts believe Kim Jong Un was alarmed by the U.S. decapitation strikes that killed Iran's leaders. In his 2025 book titled "Fallout: The Inside Story Of America's Failure To Disarm North Korea," Wit says past U.S. presidents have considered decapitation strikes against North Korea, but dropped the idea due to the risk of nuclear or conventional war. Choi Yonghwan is a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea's intelligence agency. He says Pyongyang enacted a 2022 law with a section intended to deter decapitation strikes.
CHOI YONGHWAN: (Through interpreter) It states that if the top leadership were killed, they would automatically retaliate with all their nuclear weapons.
KUHN: The North's Supreme People's Assembly added that plan to the country's constitution in March. Wit says that North Korea now has nuclear-armed missiles that stand at least some chance of hitting American cities. But he notes that getting nuclear weapons was Kim's plan B. He chose it because his plan A of reaching a deal with the U.S. fell through. By now, though, Wit says Kim is probably not eager to try again for a deal even if President Trump is.
WIT: North Korea started to realize the U.S. was a receding power. And so once again, it was looking for new friends and certainly found a very good new friend in Russia.
KUHN: North Korea signed a mutual defense pact with Russia in 2024 and sent troops to help fight Ukraine the same year.
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KUHN: Kim Jong Un highlighted ties with Moscow last month when he presided over the opening of a museum and cemetery for North Korean soldiers who died fighting in Russia's Kursk region. Wearing white gloves, he solemnly scooped dirt onto the grave of a fallen soldier as the setting sun shone on the faces of bereaved families. Choi Yonghwan says that with the backing of Russia, China, Iran and other like-minded nations, North Korea now feels empowered to play a bigger role on the global stage.
CHOI: (Through interpreter) Through such a structure, North Korea aims to no longer be seen as a rogue state that built nuclear weapons illegally, but as a new-normal state.
KUHN: He adds that most countries no longer believe that Pyongyang can be pressured to give up its nukes, so the pressure is easing. Joel Wit says that the U.S.' mistake has been to think that pressure and force are more effective than diplomacy in getting Iran and North Korea to do what it wants.
WIT: We repeatedly make mistakes, underestimating the determination of other countries to follow through on what they think their national security interests are.
KUHN: And that's why, he says, history appears to just keep repeating itself.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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