Nuclear armed aggressor or ultimate doomsday prepper? Assessing the grand strategy of a nuclear-armed North Korea

Abstract

Is the grand strategy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) more status-quo seeking or revisionist in orientation? If it is the latter, what role might its nuclear weapons play in pursuing its revisionist strategic objectives? This article presents an assessment of the Kim regime’s capabilities and intentions and finds the lack of definitive evidence pointing one way or another necessitates an investigation of the utility of nuclear weapons for states with revisionist strategic objectives. We build on classical research by Schelling and more recent research by Narang and Smetana and Ludkik to show that states, like the DPRK, can use nuclear capabilities for both deterrence and compellence in the pursuit of revisionist strategic