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Klaus Scherer | Germany | 2018 | 44:00

Allegedly his finger is always on the nuclear button. And he continues to goad the rest of the world despite UN resolutions. He testfires bombs and missiles and poses in front of his latest purportedly homemade weapons which, according to state propaganda, could strike any city in the USA, his archenemy. At the same time, he seems to be ruthlessly liquidating every possible rival, most recently his half-brother who was assassinated with poison in public at the Kuala Lumpur airport.

What motivates North Korea’s head of state, Kim Jong Un, the youngest heir of the world’s final remaining Stalinist family dynasty? What is his goal, his strategy? And how great is the danger of a nuclear clash, even if unintentional? Is the hope of détente, which started budding on the Korean peninsula in connection with the Winter Olympics, actually justified, or is it simply part of Kim’s long-term game plan? We are in February 2018, just bevor the winter Olympics in South Korea.

As a longstanding correspondent for Asia and the USA, Klaus Scherer talks to missile designers, negotiators and diplomats who dealt with Kim’s regime during previous crises and are therefore able to assess what the strongmen in Pyongyang are up to and how deliberately they wage their propaganda war.

In particular, the renowned German arms expert Robert Schmucker, a former UN weapons inspector in Irak, admonishes the world not to fall for Kim’s effect-seeking show of weapons. In Schmucker’s opinion, it is more proof of Kim’s bluffing skills than of a nuclear arsenal.

The film also reveals how poorly the UN sanctions are enforced and how Pyongyang’s foreign spies have been tracking down weapons technology for years. In Germany as well. The statement made by Hans-Geog Maaßen, the head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, was breaking news around the world: for many years, North Korea’s Berlin embassy has been illegally trying to obtain materials for building weapons.

Although there has been some change in the political atmosphere since Klaus Scherer’s film was aired in Germany, his research results are still challenging. And provide a new and helpful background when it comes to interprete Kim’s future moves.

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Klaus Scherer