'Daily Beast' columnist and Stanford University professor of East Asian history Gordon Chang comments on the developments this month in North Korea.
GORDON CHANG: I think that actually, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean ruler, was intimidated by Donald Trump. Remember at Mar-a-Lago a couple of Thursdays ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping was standing next to Trump at dinner, and Trump told him that the U.S. had just launched tomahawk strikes on Syria --a Chinese friend. And from all acounts, Xi Jinping was stunned.
I think whatever competence they had that they had figured Trump out was lost, and I believe, but I can't prove this, that Xi Jinping went back and talked to the North Koreans to tell them not to do anything provocative until they have a better handle on Trump.
So now, the North Koreans, who have been so used to intimidating everybody else, creating a sense of tension, have now met their match in the American president...
We have to look at what happened -- or what hasn't happened. Everyone expected the North Koreans to detonate that sixth nuclear test by April 15, which is the Day Of The Sun -- the 105th anniversay of the founder Kim il Sung. The biggest day in the calendar. Nothing happened.
We had after that the launch of the medium-range ballistic missile that failed -- but that wasn't what people were looking for. And we have Kim Jong Un now, he had threatened to launch a long-range ballistic missile. He hasn't done that.
On the 85th anniversay of the founding of the Korean Peoples Army, which is today. They didn't do anything.
The question is: Why not? I'm suspecting Kim Jong Un took one look at Donald Trump and thought, I'm not taking this guy on.
