Very well-written and insightful article.

However, the risk vs benefit of developing nuclear weapons in defiance of international sanctions just to satisfy one's own ego is implausible.

North Korea and the USA very recently made plans for talks. Sure, these talks are somewhat back-channel, and the US diplomats aren't official, but the fact is that this is a victory for North Korean regime, despite the media's suggestion that the talks are a result of Trump's tough rhetoric.

It's quite plausible that North Korea’s nuclear scheme is intended to be used as leverage against a US/NATO invasion, however, the impoverished nation is most likely trying to bring Western powers and the UN to the table to initiate talks. Here’s why:

- If the regime comes to the table currently, without the capability to strike the USA, they would have to give up their missile/nuclear program in exchange for removal of sanctions. The Korean people have been force-fed the belief that the exchange of their basic human rights is worth the reward – nuclear missiles capable of reaching the USA. Remove that outcome, and see the regime collapse.

- If the regime develops weapons capable of inflicting significant harm on mainland USA, they have leverage against the USA. Now the USA comes to the table on Korea’s terms, and the outcome is either an invasion of North Korea, which will be accompanied by significant US civilian losses, or the USA will accept North Korea as a legitimate nuclear power and slowly remove sanctions. This is what Kim and his boys want.

rewind :

" Then in mid-1941, Japan signed a Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union, making it clear that Japan’s military would be moving into Southeast Asia, where the United States had greater interests. A third agreement with Vichy France enabled Japanese forces to move into Indochina and begin their Southern Advance. The United States responded to this growing threat by temporarily halting negotiations with Japanese diplomats, instituting a full embargo on exports to Japan, freezing Japanese assets in U.S. banks, and sending supplies into China along the Burma Road. Although negotiations restarted after the United States increasingly enforced an embargo against Japan, they made little headway.

Faced with serious shortages as a result of the embargo, unable to retreat, and convinced that the U.S. officials opposed further negotiations, Japan’s leaders came to the conclusion that they had to act swiftly. For their part, U.S. leaders had not given up on a negotiated settlement, and also doubted that Japan had the military strength to attack the U.S. territory. Therefore they were stunned when the unthinkable happened and Japanese planes bombed the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941."

Apparently it has been a long held wish for the Kim dynasty to reunite Korea, and reunite it under the control of the Kims.
Considering it will double the amount of people KJU can lord over, it seems quite an understandable goal.