Non-Traditional Security Issues in North Korea

Abstract

The concept of security has undergone significant change in the past few decades: it has been broadened to include a greater number of potential threats and an increased number of relevant actors. Yet, the vast majority of studies on North Korea continue to focus primarily on the country’s nuclear weapons program, its military, and other traditional security issues surrounding Pyongyang. While North Korea captures headlines with its aggressive behavior and growing nuclear arsenal, the ground-level threats to average, everyday North Koreans go largely unnoticed. This book seeks to refocus research on North Korean security from the traditional to largely unexplored non-traditional security (NTS) issues. In the wake of political succession to Kim Jung Un, the issue of NTS is increasingly important. From the lasting effects of the famine of the 1990s to continued food shortages and the growing marketization of North Korean society, the Pyongyang regime is facing diverse and unprecedented challenges. This book offers analyses of emerging North Korean NTS issues. It looks at these issues and their effects at the local, regional, and international level, as well as examining the international community’s efforts to promote an NTS approach to North Korea. More specifically, the book addresses the traditional and NTS paradigms, energy security, gender security, transnational organized crime, the internal and external dimensions of North Korea’s food security, the “Responsibility to Protect,” refugee issues and international law, and the role of NGOs in promoting NTS in North Korea.