Story highlights Mike Rogers: North Korea's belligerence should be getting greater attention

Our national security leaders must be ready to do more than fight terrorism, he says

Mike Rogers is a CNN national security commentator, the host of CNN's "Declassified" TV series, and is the past chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The views expressed are his own.

(CNN) North Korea's 32-year-old leader is often mocked online, on TV shows and in movies, but it is believed Kim Jong Un could have 50 to 100 nuclear weapons by 2020 -- a reality that should give a chill to anyone tempted to dismiss Kim as anything less than serious. Recognizing the threat, this week the UN Security Council voted unanimously to introduce new sanctions, stating that North Korea should abandon its nuclear weapons program.

As the next administration takes power, it must recognize that we cannot use sanctions and food aid to bring North Korea to the negotiating table only to watch it continue its destabilizing behavior once it receives the aid. Let's learn from our past mistakes and be sure we address the nuclear elephant in the room. An Iran with "the bomb" clearly would be catastrophic, but we already have a nuclear armed rogue state -- and its sophistication is growing.

True, many of North Korea's policies seem wildly belligerent. But they have often produced specific returns in the form of diplomatic or economic concessions. The big question, though, is where the political and military leadership align with Kim's own impulses.

Mike Rogers

Kim is ruthless in his pursuit of power -- he has had dozens of senior officials executed, including reportedly by anti-aircraft cannon . And, like his father, Kim has continued policies that have left many thousands starving . Indeed, he is a man who has an absolute authority that rests on his whims -- Kim is not the head of a democratic republic with political checks and balances, nor does he have to juggle the power structure within a more autocratic nation like China.

But he may not always be a rational actor. He executed his uncle not long after taking power , an official who was his strongest connection to China, his nation's economic lifeline. In a country that relies on aid packages and black market goods to try to feed its people, that should give you pause.

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