North Korea’s New Diplomacy

Challenging Political Isolation in the 21st Century

verfasst von: Dr. Virginie Grzelczyk

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book examines how North Korea has managed to weather an uncertain political future and catastrophic economic system since the end of the Cold War. Emerging as a state that has successfully developed and tested missiles and nuclear weapons, North Korea has consolidated the Kim family dynasty through the appointment of Kim Jong Un as Pyongyang’s latest strongman. The author provides an empirically rich account of new diplomatic recognitions, military partnerships, knowledge trade, coping mechanisms to offset international sanctions, import and export partners, foreign investment practices and engagement within the Global South. The resulting picture is that of a state that is, against all odds, mainstreaming, and becoming a more complex and relevant actor in the 21st century diplomatic world.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Why the Need to Reevaluate North Korea?

Abstract

How is it possible for a state seemingly as isolated and dysfunctional as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to survive? This book revisits the DPRK’s past and analyzes its present to understand the nature of its long-lost economic and military support system, framing North Korea as both a small state and a rational actor. This allows for new insights and shows that the DPRK is slowly transitioning away from collapse. Gone are the trappings associated with calling the DPRK crazy, rogue, and unmanageable. Instead, the analysis opens up the way to understand a state that is at a critical juncture, slowly willing and needing to modernize, yet as committed as ever to be independent while navigating an interdependent world.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Chapter 2. Friends and Foes: An Orthodox Story

Abstract

Once upon a time, there was just one Korea. Isolated, traditional, and fearful of its surroundings, Choson’s forced opening, at the hands of unscrupulous foreign powers, left the kingdom depleted and with little understanding of the diplomatic world. After a 30-year colonization, a partition, and a bitter war, the world the twenty-first-century North Korea operates in is framed by its relationships with its antagonists (United States, Japan), its partners (the PRC, the USSR, and the Communist world), and its significant other and brother-in-arms South Korea. But it is Pyongyang’s status as a small state, fighting for its own state legitimacy and survival in a conflicted peninsula that sets the stage for its foreign policy and diplomatic choices.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Chapter 3. Nothing but Words? Rhetoric and Beyond

Abstract

North Korea’s Chuch’e quickly became the political and ideological vehicle that governed how the country would talk to its citizens, interact with other countries, and color its diplomatic discourse. As an independent and sovereign country since 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has ignored, recognized, congratulated, met, signed, or even reneged on treaties with just about every other country around the globe. How the DPRK has managed its foreign relations has also evolved: while diplomatic relationship only meant state to state decades ago, Pyongyang now talks to IGOs, NGOs, private citizens, and businesses.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Chapter 4. Securing Freedom

Abstract

How to survive in a world fraught with weapons and realpolitik? For the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), survival means more than defying those who call Pyongyang a rogue state. It has meant getting security guaranties from partners during the Cold War, until it could sell its aging technology and finance its own weapon-making facilities, and emerge, after the fall of the Soviet Union and China’s near capitalist embrace, as a small state capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons. If some have tried to stop this ascension by imposing sanctions, others have helped Pyongyang as well, and it should come as no surprise that collusion occurs between states that attempt to defy the international order imposed by a handful of powerful states whose values are often rejected by the DPRK and its new partners.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Chapter 5. Navigating Interdependence

Abstract

To transcend its initial fragility, fighting for its political survival, and later on the rise of South Korea as the main economic powerhouse on the Korean peninsula, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) had to compromise and redefine its commitment to self-reliance. How to practice independent interdependence now occupies a large part of the DPRK’s international agenda. This has meant navigating an extensive web of sanctions, developing smuggling operations to raise revenues, sending workers abroad to secure remittances, or exporting bespoke DPRK talents.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Chapter 6. The DPRK and the Politics of Mainstreaming

Abstract

Despite its best efforts to broadcast an image of independence, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is engaged in global governance. A utilitarian state in just about every settings, the DPRK’s participation in organizations and global processes has achieved practical gains while aiming to broadcast an anti-hegemonic message as well. Ultimately, the DPRK is making steps to engage in the global financial system and is seeking new ways to modernize, via foreign investments, telecommunication opportunities, and education.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Chapter 7. Conclusion: Fostering Cooperation in a Multipolar World

Abstract

What can become of regional stability, world peace but especially of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK’s) future when Pyongyang keeps it utmost commitment to its nuclear weapons program yet start to engage economically with the international community? There are only few allies left that would defend the DPRK’s nuclear pursuit and even less countries that have political and economic clout to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiation table. In the end, the DPRK as a small state committed to its survival at any cost will need to be engaged as a nuclear power and no less, while the international community will also need to decide whether they can participate in developing a new, modern, and hopefully pluralist North Korean society, or perpetuate a hostile, mutually hurting status quo.

Virginie Grzelczyk

Backmatter

Titel: North Korea’s New Diplomacy
verfasst von: Dr. Virginie Grzelczyk
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-45024-1
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-45023-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45024-1