North Korea's Nuke Test Isn't That Scary, but Kim Is

Fred Kaplan, Slate
Hard as it was to do diplomacy with the elder Kims, Western diplomats came to discern patterns, a distinct negotiating style, and figured out ways to play the game. The most nerve-racking thing about the young Kim is that the elders’ rules no longer apply. “He doesn’t seem to be following any rulebook,” says Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations, whose 1999 book, Negotiating on the Edge, laid out the rules for talking with North Korea. “My book was relevant up to 2011. With Kim Jong-un, it isn’t any more.”