North Korea Sees New Opportunities in ‘Neo-Cold War’ Kim Jong-un has launched a record number of missiles this year, hoping to leverage the tension between the United States and China, and to exploit hostilities toward Moscow.With the Biden administration occupied on multiple fronts, North Korea, a tiny, isolated nation of 25 million people, has seemed determined to make Washington pay attention, its leader, Kim Jong-un, warning that the United States should no longer consider itself a “unipolar” superpower in a new “Cold War.” Mr. Kim has spent much of the year antagonizing the United States and its allies, testing a record number of missiles — 86 — and even rehearsing to fire a nuclear missile at South Korea.With Russia hinting at threats to use nuclear weapons and relations between Washington and Beijing worsening, Mr. Kim most likely senses opportunity: In an increasingly destabilized world, there is no better time to test his weapons, show off his advancing technology and provoke his enemies with virtual impunity while trying to gain diplomatic leverage.“To an isolated and underdeveloped country like North Korea that sees itself as in a constant standoff with external enemies, no environment is conducive to its survival like a Cold War.” There is a school of thought in which the Cold War never ended, and that the dividing line between the two Koreas, known as the Demilitarized Zone, is a symbol of the unfinished business of dueling great powers.Mr. Xi visited Pyongyang in 2019, after the Trump-Kim talks collapsed, and said he would help address North Korea’s security and economic concerns “to the best of my ability.” When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan in August, North Korea returned China’s favor by calling the visit an “impudent interference” in Beijing’s “internal affairs.” Mr. Kim also saw an advantage in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has been aligning his country more closely with Moscow."