Kim Jong Un Could Take ‘Lethal Military Action’ Against South Korea—Report

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could take “lethal military action” against the South in the coming months as he ramps up tensions on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. officials told the New York Times.

The strongman leader in Pyongyang appears to have strengthened his military and diplomatic positions in recent times, The Times‘ report said on Thursday, and he has laid the discursive groundwork in recent moves and pronouncements that have described the United States as a major threat to North Korea’s survival, placing U.S. treaty ally Seoul in its sights, too.

North-South ties have nose-dived after the collapse of dialogue just before the pandemic, an event that served to further isolate Kim’s poverty-stricken regime. The alarming shift in North Korea’s posture has come with repeated ballistic missile tests, a satellite launch and overt threats of nuclear war.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said a nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies—Japan and South Korea are both within the range of its missiles—would result in the end of Kim’s regime.

Two U.S. officials told The Times that it would be surprising for Kim, 40, to risk his political power and the fragile peace on the Peninsula in a full-scale war. However, more than one long-time watcher of Pyongyang has caution that the supreme leader may resort to at least limited military strikes to achieve his objectives while avoiding rapid escalation.

Researchers at 38 North, part of the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, D.C., concluded in a report this month that Kim had “made a strategic decision to go to war.” The security situation on the Korean Peninsula was at its most dangerous point since the Korean War in the early 1950s, they said.

The Times said U.S. officials did not foresee an imminent risk of full-scale war by North Korea, but they took seriously Kim’s recent declarations of hostilities. They cited previous provocations—such as the 2010 shelling of a South Korean island—as an example of the Pyongyang’s willingness to engage in military confrontations.

In early January, North Korea’s forces were accused of firing live artillery shells near the country’s shared maritime border with the South, triggering evacuation orders by Seoul. No injuries were reported.

Kim, who inherited leadership of North Korea in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, has recently described reconciliation efforts with the South as a mistake. And he demonstrated the conviction with more than just words.

The specialist website NK News said this week Kim made good on his word to tear down the 100-foot Arch of Reunification in capital Pyongyang. The monument symbolizing hope of eventual unification on the peninsula had been erected in 2001 by his father.

Inter-Korean relations appear to be locked in a downward spiral, with each side responding militarily to the other’s moves.

The frequent missile tests in the North have pushed the South’s President Yoon Suk Yeol closer to the U.S. and even Japan—once thought highly improbable given their wartime history.

However, joint military drills between the three allies have only strengthened Kim’s resolve. The North Korean leader has explicitly cited the moves as reasons why his country must prepare for conflict.

China, North Korea’s only treaty ally, has largely sided with Pyongyang by arguing against ongoing militarization on the peninsula.