The North Korean Strategy
Digging into the domestic and international forces driving North Korea’s nuclear provocations
While North Korea’s nuclear development program has been a longstanding point of contention, a series of nuclear tests, missile launches and intelligence reports — not to mention a healthy dose of bellicose rhetoric — have dramatically ratcheted up tensions. We now know that North Korea’s nuclear program has advanced significantly, and its ability to deliver a nuclear payload has stretched beyond its immediate neighbors and now threatens the continental United States.
So how did we get here? Why would North Korea, a country that despite its formidable military, would almost certainly lose a full-scale war with the United States, continue its provocative tests?
In this episode of PolicyCast, Dr. John Park, the director of the Korea Working Group at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, digs into the political and economic forces driving Kim Jong-un’s continued provocations; the difficulty China faces in pressuring their longtime ally to give up its nuclear ambitions; and how the calculus has changed for officials in Washington.
HKS PolicyCast is the official podcast of Harvard Kennedy School, featuring weekly interviews with scholars and leading practitioners in public policy, leadership, and international affairs. It is hosted by filmmaker, writer, and policy wonk Matt Cadwallader.
