Trump's Trials - How Trump's approach with Iran mirrors similar choices made with North Korea

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Trump shifts from diplomacy to force on Iran's nuclear ambitions, echoing past U.S. dilemmas with North Korea, where similar choices by presidents produced very different outcomes. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports. Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's terms. I'm Scott Detrow. President Trump promised every single American that he would make America safe again. Every single day in the Oval Office, the president looks at us and says, why haven't we done more? This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president. With a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power. Here's the latest from NPR. From NPR news, I'm Leila Faldin.

When the U.S. and Israel lost patience with diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program, they attacked with military force. American presidents had faced a similar choice about North Korea, which, unlike Iran now, is a nuclear power. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul on the different results. Deputies to North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly stood for the playing of the Socialist, anthem the International at a meeting in March. Kim Jong-un gave a speech that essentially said at a time when the U.S. is riding roughshod over some countries, implying Venezuela and Iran, North Korea clearly made the right choice to keep building its nuclear arsenal. Former State Department official Joel Witt says Kim must be feeling emboldened.

If you look at who's the winner over, you know, the past decade or so of U.S.-North Korean relations, Kim Jong-un clearly wins first prize. Experts believe Kim Jong-un was alarmed by the U.S. Decapitation Strikes that killed Iran's leaders. In his 2025 book titled Fallout, The Inside Story of America's Failure to Disarm North Korea, Witt says past U.S. presidents have considered decapitation strikes against North Korea, but dropped the idea due to the risk of nuclear or conventional war. Cheyung-Huan is a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea's intelligence agency.

He says Pyongyang enacted a 22 law with a section intended to deter decapitation strikes. It states that if the top leadership were killed, they would automatically retaliate with all their nuclear weapons. The North Supreme People's Assembly added that plan to the country's constitution in March. Witt says that North Korea now has nuclear-armed missiles that standardly some chance of hitting American cities. But he notes that getting nuclear weapons was Kim's plan B. He chose it because his plan A of reaching a deal with the U.S. fell through. By now, though, Witt says Kim is probably not eager to try again for a deal, even if President Trump is. North Korea started to realize the U.S. was a receding power.

And so once again, it was looking for new friends and certainly found a very good new friend in Russia. North Korea signed a mutual defense pact with Russia in 2024 and sent troops to help fight Ukraine the same year. Kim Jong-un highlighted ties with Moscow last month when he presided over the opening of a museum and cemetery for North Korean soldiers who died fighting in Russia's Kursk region. Wearing white gloves, he solemnly scooped dirt onto the grave of a fallen soldier as the setting sun shone on the faces of bereaved families. Chey Huang says that with the backing of Russia, China, Iran, and other like-minded nations, North Korea now feels empowered to play a bigger role on the global stage. Through such a structure, North Korea aims to no longer be seen as a rogue state that built nuclear weapons illegally, but as a new normal state.

He adds that most countries no longer believe that Pyongyang can be pressured to give up its nukes, so the pressure is easing. Joel Witt says that the U.S.'s mistake has been to think that pressure and force are more effective than diplomacy in getting Iran and North Korea to do what it wants. We repeatedly make mistakes underestimating the determination of other countries to follow through on what they think their national security interests are. And that's why, he says, history appears to just keep repeating itself. Anthony Cune, NPR News, Seoul.

Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms. from NPR.