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Deadline? What Deadline? North Korea, US Try New 'Strategic Patience'

William Gallo

   SEOUL - In April, just weeks after his summit with U.S. President
   Donald Trump collapsed in Hanoi, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
   decided to ramp up the pressure on Washington.

   "We will wait for a bold decision from the U.S. with patience till the
   end of this year," Kim said in a speech to North Korea's Supreme
   People's Assembly.

   Just three weeks later, Kim launched his first missiles in nearly a
   year and a half and would conduct 12 more rounds of launches in 2019,
   underscoring the urgency of his year-end deadline.

   At one point in early December, North Korean state media published
   near-daily warnings of Kim's deadline, including one threat from a
   Foreign Affairs Ministry official regarding a potentially sinister
   "Christmas gift" for the U.S.

   The top U.S. Air Force general in the Pacific region said he expected
   North Korea's gift to be a long-range missile launch. The U.S.
   increased surveillance flights around the Korean peninsula, apparently
   on alert for weapons tests.

   The Christmas gift never came, though.
   

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