Despite President Donald Trump labeling him a "madman," senior CIA officials describe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a "rational actor" with long-term plans, CNN reported.
"There's a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong Un has done," Yong Suk Lee, the deputy assistant director of the agency's Korea Mission Center, said during a recent conference at George Washington University.
"Waking up one morning and deciding he wants to nuke" Los Angeles is unlikely, Lee added. "He wants to rule for a long time and die peacefully in his own bed."
Lee added "the last person who wants conflict on the peninsula is actually Kim Jong Un. We have a tendency in this country and elsewhere to underestimate the conservatism that runs in these authoritarian regimes."
He explained although Kim does not actually want war to break out, he must continue this strategy because "North Korea is a political organism that thrives on confrontation."
The North Korea leader is looking to make his country relevant on the international stage once again, according to Lee.
"Kim's long-term goal is to come to some sort of big power agreement with the U.S. and to remove U.S. presence from the peninsula."
Lee's CIA colleague Michael Collins, the deputy assistant director of the east Asia and Pacific mission center, added "North Korea is clearly testing the patience of the U.S. and international community. With each increasing escalation, they're raising the threshold for the United States and others to accept or press back against that."
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