Grant Newsham, a Risk Mitigation Advisor and the CEO of its affiliated Third Rail organization, was interviewed by VOA's Victor Beattie, and stated that Kim Jong Un's strategy "is really about preserving the Kim dynasty in North Korea as opposed to what happened to Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Mommar Gadhafi." Obviously a very different view than that put out by the North Korean state media that the nuclear program is safeguarding the peace and security of the Korean peninsula against "protracted nuclear threats of the U.S. Imperialists."
Grant Newsham also remarked that the day you see the Bank of China have its banking license to operate in the U.S. suspended for six months, is the day you know Washington means business.
According to Mr. Newsham, North Korean leader Kim promoted, among others, his 28-year old sister, Kim Yo-Jong to the post of alternate member of the politburo, the regime's top decision-making body. Newsham explained that such promotions have only one purpose: to ensure the most trustworthy are advanced to ensure the regime's survival, what he likens to an organized crime gang.