CIA : Kim Jong Un isn't crazy

Between the ruthless executions of his own senior officers, bombastic threats of nuclear annihilation and defiant missile tests, it may be easy to agree with President Donald Trump's recent assessment that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a "madman" who is "on a suicide mission for himself."

"There's a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong Un has done," according to Yong Suk Lee, deputy assistant director of the CIA's Korea Mission Center, who discussed the escalating tensions between North Korea and the US during a conference organized by the agency at George Washington University.

While Kim may not want a war with the US, he does view the strategy of perpetuating a confrontational relationship as a key to maintaining his grip on power, according to Lee and Michael Collins, deputy assistant director of the east Asia and Pacific mission center at the CIA.

One report from a South Korean think tank, the Institute for National Security Strategy, claims he has ordered the executions of at least 340 people since he came to power -- 140 of whom were senior officers in the country's government, military and ruling Korean Worker's Party.

Kim remains unlikely to intentionally start a war with the US or its allies like South Korea as that would almost certainly result in his own destruction, according to Collins and Lee, but both CIA officials said they anticipate tensions with North Korea will continue -- raising the risk of a miscalculation from both sides.

UCJ, UNILORIN.