McMaster, had argued for months against making the attacks on North Korea’s leader personal, warning it could backfire. It also says that the dynastic leader — Kim is the grandson of the communist country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, and son of its next leader, Kim Jong Il — views himself as inseparable from the North Korean state. U.S. officials now believe that North Korea has fully one-third of its economy invested in its nuclear and missile programs. Trump and his senior aides say Kim has used foreign assistance, including trading subsidies from China, to offset such massive spending. President Clinton, and then President George W. Bush, engaged in two major diplomatic initiatives to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons efforts in return for aid.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 22, 2017 20:48 UTC