Kim Jong-un có thực sự lên kế hoạch tấn công lần này?

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North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells (pháo đạn) in waters near South Korean border islands on Jan. 5. Last week, it said it no longer regarded the South as inhabited (nơi sinh sống) by “fellow countrymen (đồng bào)” but as a “hostile state (quốc gia thù địch)” it would subjugate (khuất phục) through a nuclear war. On Friday, it said it had tested an underwater nuclear drone to help repel (đẩy lùi) U.S. Navy fleets (hạm đội).

That new drumbeat of threats, while the United States and its allies have been preoccupied (bận tâm) with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East (Trung Đông), has set foreign officials and analysts wondering whether the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has moved beyond posturing and is planning to assert (khẳng định) more military force (lực lượng quân sự).

For decades, a central part of the North Korean playbook has been to stage carefully measured and timed military provocations (khiêu khích) — some aimed at tightening internal discipline, others at demanding attention from its neighbors and the United States, or all of that at once.

source: nytimes,