The EU, Regional Cooperation and Regional Conflicts: The Case of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis

Abstract

North Korea poses a security threat by developing nuclear weapons. To address this source of regional insecurity, the European Union (EU) has promoted institutionalised frameworks of regional cooperation and integration as an alternative route to the realist approach. Although there might remain controversies in terms of its relevance and effectiveness in dealing with the North Korean nuclear crisis, this chapter still examines the extent to which, and under which conditions, regional integration can make a contribution to the transformation of the current crisis. In answering this question, it concludes that a long-term model-setting effect is hard to disregard, in spite of the mixed view of substantial compulsory and social learning effects. The underlying reasons are threefold. They are the regime-seeking activities of North Korea, key regional and global actors’ reservations about the current institutionalised frameworks of regional cooperation and the EU’s relatively low profile in North Korean affairs.