DPRK’S Policy Priorities toward the US : What Impact does North Korea’s Foreign Policy have on its Strategic Choices?

Abstract

This study begins with the question concerning which factors influence whether North Korea chooses to implement risky or cooperative policies toward the United States, as well as what role domestic politics and ideology play in the DPRK’s formation and enactment of foreign policy. This study also seeks to explain why North Korea chooses a hardline foreign policy, and when it chooses to engage with the US. To find answers to these questions, the domestic priorities behind foreign policies are analyzed with in the framework of humanitarianmotives. In this sense, North Korean foreign policy goals are motivated by three domestic priorities or preferences: security, identity, and prosperity. At first, this research attempts to explain how historical and cultural contexts play into the DPRK’s formation of its foreign policy toward the US, and also examine RodongSinmun, the official newspaper of Pyongyang regime, through the lens of content analysis, in order to determine the DPRK’s perception and policy preferences toward the US. Conclusively, this article implies that the DPRK’s foreign policy is determined primarily by the demands of ‘national security’ relative to the US.