What he’s striving for is a ship incident in which Americans are detained —his aim is to hang on Obama a Tehran Embassy-type incident, a-la Jimmy Carter.
The “war criminals” will be paraded on TV a bit, maybe a show trial of some sort. The objective will be to put the USA on the defensive, to make them ASK the DPRK for leniency, to permit for a better atmosphere in which to receive aid, continue WMD ambitions, and to export those WMD’s without blue-water naval intercept.
Kim wants:
1. Money
2. Freedom to do bad stuff
3. Prestige
He dipped his toes into the water when he detained those Korean-American TV journalists —USA did nothing, thereby sending an important signal.
There have been other tests, too.