Is North Korea Getting More Aggressive Because Sanctions Are Biting?

Earlier this week, Steph Haggard speculated on what Kim Jong Un is doing by continuing to poke the Trump administration in the eye. No doubt psychological factors are in play, but in a column for his home town paper, the Union Tribune, he speculates that Kim Jong Un is getting more aggressive precisely because sanctions are biting. Informal reports and rumor have long suggested that the regime believes it can force concessions though provocations. We don’t see much evidence of success with this approach in recent years, under either Obama or Trump. But it may be part of his theory of the case.