He did 3 icbm tests in 2017. That was a red line, north koreans would be in trouble if they did that. A Massive Nuclear test, he threatened, threatened to hit south korea, night training for commando raids. He has mark displays of the south korean president ial house, training on how be rated he has done. And and the maximum pressure campaign. All that went away when donald trump said i dont believe in maximum pressure. He became better, better and bolder, he perceives a lack of political will to respond to him or punish. Sanctions are hard to implement. You have to have all your partners across the globe, have the capacity to find out listed activity that are taking place in their country. Bigger acceptance for risk, but this is something i will be watching for. What i worry about is his progressiveness, not being chased or being self reflected what you need to do but sensing weakness they might go all in on the other sector which is the Nuclear Weapons program and military readiness. Economic decision is more uncertain with measures they have taken to prevent coronavirus, taking draconian measures, the secondary effect of that. Particularly with major surgery, makes them more risky in the future, you might have psychological impact. Has to show traits. How do you keep the obese in line . How do you keep the military in line. Which is strange for somebody who is overweight, it is striking to me how the inconsistency of kim jong un with his protruding belly and smoking a cigarette and ordering the north korean navy to strip down and swim in the ocean for the impromptu drill. The perception of strength in doing these things. A fellow for defense analysis, they feared kim jongil but did not respect him. One of the reasons he survived is one of the key issues of stability, the elite loyalty, elite support for kim jongil. How much do they support him . Im not sure it is more, are they willing, to support him in the way something to be mindful of, as odious as kim jong un might be, there are interests that are tied to him, that means he doesnt have a stake in the north korean economy, they are very much involved in moneymaking, the closer you are to the regime the more money you make, the more opportunity we have and we think of it in terms of loyalty to kim jong un himself, the stability effort. We have more questions. Someone asking about a book related jump, hoping for a book tour. How are you handling that. This is part of writing this book. I was nervous about the book tour, not being able to show people what he produced, theres always a Silver Lining and having this webinar with youtube was different from having it in brookings, holds 200 people and reach hundreds of people who can share in a conversation and hear about north korea, what is going on in the news. The worst part was writing late at night, the brookings job, putting kids to bed after dinner and starting work at 9 00 pm, work until 3 00 pm in doing that for a year. Cant sleep until got up at 7 00. Got the gravity blanket. From washington dc, the question you answered from new jersey. Did he travel to china. And he killed his uncle by marriage in 2013. One of the criticisms in the indictment, he had too many contacts with the chinese and was more subservient to the chinese and working with the chinese and that is something you want to avoid, too much for in contact makes it highly suspicious and there are rumors that he went with his father to china, the Chinese Government was very open about this. Beijing was the first to say congratulations, kim jong un after his fathers death. That, in beijing, to have contact, and the tyranny of the week that even though you had this relatively weak country you had people that there is a sense without north korean stability, you need access, some sort of relations with them. One question is is it easier to analyze north korea from this time of kim jongil to kim jong un given so many running from north korea, better technology. Is it easier . Theres a lot of information in terms of technology. This is the result of activist work and organizations like the National Endowment for democracy and the state department. Theres a lot of information coming out. Some of the things we hear about the regime and the grassroots way is you get a flavor of some of the things, give us a flavor or snapshot in the region, theres a lot of complaining, great information out of north korea. Theres a lot of anxiety. Some isolated criticisms, the problem is these criticisms are not connected. These are isolated incidents of critiquing the regime and not the harbinger of the people rising up. We have time for one last question from the audience, information on the outside world has been leaking into north korea, why has there not been an uprising, to the death of former south korean president , there hasnt been an uprising. It is not connected in that way to spur collective action or protest when the arab spring happened. It is the start of what we know, when people rise up as a result of technology. They are not connected to each other and fully monitored, people are careful about what they say. The connections that are necessary for any kind of protest. And this is the irony of all this, north Korean People are so resilient, so many decades of living under the kim family, they lived through the famine, whether events, they live through appear go of ones and living through this regime, they are making money and lots of it. You will not see massive uprisings of the result of the fact that there are enough people earning money. Kim is trying to encourage that you too can make it big by having pyongyang become the center of modern luxury as a way of keeping those desires in chain and directed in word toward selfimprovement versus outward and if the regime can keep aspiration and hopes you will have that. Our time has come to a end. Thank you, do you have any final comments . Just to thank you through brookings, ballantyne and all of you who have joined us today. Im grateful and proud of this book and hope you like it as much as i enjoyed writing it. I thank everyone for joining us for the most insightful book on the subject that is very timely and of great importance to national security, a highly informed, substantive analysis of one of the least known leaders in the world, not an easy task. This book is highly readable. The narrative on north korea, i promise it will resonate with everyone. I personally found it very and lightning. Very thoughtful analysis, an explanation of why and how she came to her assessment and evaluation. It is very revelatory. Describing that execution and what transpired in the elaborate on what happened but how to deal with kim jong un and so on. Thank you for writing this book, thank you all for joining us today. Lift off of the dragon. Today, watch live coverage of the launch of space xs commercial crew test flight launching the first astronauts from american soil in spacecraft since 2011. Live coverage of the space x crew dragon launch begin to 12 15 eastern on cspan2 with lift off at 4 30 p. M. At nasa astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley launch to the International Space station, then he post launch briefing with jim bridenstine. 11 15 eastern on cspan2, all they live coverage of the space x crew dragon as it docs with the International Space station, then the opening of the hatch between the two space vehicles in the event between the space x crew dragon and the iss crew, watch live on cspan2, online, cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio apps. The president s from Public Affairs availabow