North Korea experts can at best fumble in the dark.But for those who have studied the quasi-communist state long enough, its pattern of rotating provocations and platitudes is all too predictable -- and all indications suggest that the North is set to carry out a long-range rocket launch next month.
In fact, a failure to do so around the Workers' Party's 70th anniversary on Oct. 10 might even suggest a problem in Pyongyang, one leading analyst told Anadolu Agency this week.
"Were [leader] Kim
PudgeJong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
not to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this October, it may be an indication of 'change' inside the regime: either Kim is willing to change his ways for the better or is in trouble," said Lee Sung-yoon, professor of Korean Studies at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.