Madeleine Albright needed to reach a diplomat who was out of contact at a football game: Daniel Stone, “Hillary Clinton’s State Department Nerve Center: Inside the Other Situation Room,” Daily Beast, May 19, 2011.
the State Department had used the New York channel before: Josh Rogin, “Inside the ‘New York Channel’ between the United States and North Korea,” Washington Post, August 11, 2017.
“pressure, compete with, and outmaneuver” US adversaries: Nahal Toosi, “Leaked Memo Schooled Tillerson on Human Rights,” Politico, December 19, 2017.
Hook had stayed on: “For now, however, another top Tillerson aide, Brian Hook, appears to be staying in place. Hook has also spurred resentment in Foggy Bottom for using the division under his control, the Policy Planning Staff, to effectively take over many decisions and tasks traditionally left to the department’s regional and functional bureaus.” Nahal Toosi, “Top Tillerson Aides Resign amid State Department Shuffle,” Politico, March 14, 2018.
“Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets”: Noah Bierman, “Trump’s Chief of Staff: ‘I Do Not Follow the Tweets,’” Los Angeles Times, November 12, 2017.
“pushing the tweets in the right direction”: Josh Dawsey, “John Kelly’s Big Challenge: Controlling the Tweeter in Chief,” Politico, August 4, 2017.
4. The Noise of Rumors
In fact, she had merely extinguished a trash fire: Max Fisher, “North Korean ‘Traffic Girl’ May Have Won Military Award for Saving Kim Jong Un Poster,” Washington Post, May 9, 2013.
the US Department of Defense took more than an hour to activate its alternate command center at Site R: Rick Newman and Patrick Creed, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11 (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 2008), 174.
According to Ahmed El-Noamany: Chad O’Carroll, “Inside North Korea’s Cell Network: Ex-Koryolink Technical Director Reveals All,” NK News, August 20, 2015.
US and United Nations forces captured thousands of hours of secret recordings of meetings, phone calls, and conferences: This section is modeled on the discussion found in David D. Palkki, Kevin M. Woods, and Mark Stout, The Saddam Tapes: The Inner Workings of a Tyrant’s Regime, 1978–2001 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
“plotting bastards”: I have chosen a Korean equivalent of “conspiring bastards”—the term that Saddam used to describe the United States. See Hal Brands and David Palkki, “‘Conspiring Bastards’: Saddam Hussein’s Strategic View of the United States,” Diplomatic History 36, no. 3 (June 2012): 625–659.
Images of Jang being led away: “Traitor Jang Song Thaek Executed,” Korean Central News Agency, December 13, 2013.
The North Koreans simply said that Jang had been shot: Alistair Bunkall, “North Korea: Kim Jong-Un Official Speaks,” Sky News, January 30, 2014.
when North Korean agents rubbed a nerve agent in his face at the Kuala Lumpur airport: Kyle Swenson, “A Gruesome North Korean Murder Plot: Trial Sheds New Light on Assassination of Kim Jong Un’s Brother,” Washington Post, October 17, 2017.
North Korean agents continued to make attempts on the lives of his children: Lee Young-Jong and Lee Sung-Eun, “China Arrests Would-be Assassins of Kim Han-sol,” JoongAng Ilbo, November 1, 2017.
“There’s a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong Un has done”: Zachary Cohen, “CIA: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Isn’t Crazy,” CNN, October 6, 2017.
In October 2017, for example, North Korea alleged that it had discovered a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un: “In May this year, a group of heinous terrorists who infiltrated into our country on the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US and the South Korean puppet Intelligence Service with the purpose of carrying out a state-sponsored terrorism against our supreme headquarters using biological and chemical substance were caught and exposed.” “DPRK Representative on Principled Stand of DPRK on Terrorism,” Korean Central News Agency, October 6, 2017.
“get China to make that guy disappear in one form or another very quickly”: “Trump on Assassinating Kim Jong Un: ‘I’ve Heard of Worse Things,’” CBS News, February 10, 2016.
In December 2014, North Korea suffered a massive distributed denial-of-service attack: Ashley Feinberg, “So Who Shut Down North Korea’s Internet?” Gizmodo, December 23, 2014.
And in late 2017, the United States accused North Korea of conducting another large-scale cyber-attack called Wanna Cry: “US Blames North Korea for ‘WannaCry’ Cyber Attack,” Reuters, December 18, 2017.
The day before the invasion was set to begin: The attack on Dora Farm is described in detail by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor in Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Random House, 2007), 188–204.
“Right now we present ideal targets for atomic weapons in Pusan and Inchon”: “Substance of Discussions of State–Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting Held in Room 2C-923, the Pentagon Building, on Friday, March 27, 1953, at 11:30 AM, Top Secret, Minutes, c. March 27, 1953.”
“As early as 1965, Kim Il-sung had said that North Korea should develop rockets and missiles to hit US forces inside Japan”: Ko Young-hwan, in “North Korean Missile Proliferation,” hearing before the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. Hrg. 105–241, October 21, 1997, 18.
“Kim Jong Il believes that if North Korea creates more than 20,000 American casualties in the region”: Ko Young-hwan, “North Korean Missile Proliferation,” 5.
North Korea was “well aware of [the] foolishness of Saddam Hussein”: “US Slightest Misjudgment of DPRK Will Lead It to Final Doom: KCNA Commentary,” KCNA, March 13, 2017.
Iran had, for many years, trained its proxies to attack American-made Patriot defenses: Conflict Armament Research, “Iranian Technology Transfers to Yemen: ‘Kamikaze’ Drones Used by Houthi Forces to Attack Coalition Missile Defence Systems,” March 2017.
After an Israeli battery shot down a $200 quadcopter with a $3 million Patriot missile: “Israel Uses Patriot Missile to Shoot Down Drone,” Associated Press, November 13, 2017.
North Korea released images of drones being used in combat and paraded them through Pyongyang: Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., “North Korea Drones On, Redux,” 38North, January 19, 2016.
Soldiers on runs would log their route: Liz Sly, “US Soldiers Are Revealing Sensitive and Dangerous Information by Jogging,” Washington Post, January 29, 2018.