The world through Pyongyang’s eyes

Abstract

Abstract How does North Korea order its external international environment? How has its world view evolved with time? Chapter 1 examines just what constitutes North Korea’s perspective on international relations and the factors influencing the formation of this world view. From the regime-state’s inception in 1948 under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s conceptualization of its state identity and outlook on international relations were influenced by two principal factors: first, the legacies of Japanese imperial rule over the then unified Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945; second, the formation of an oppositional identity to the United States as exemplified by the ideological prism of the US ‘hostile policy’. These two factors were formative in consolidating Kim Il Sung’s power, in the development of the state ideology of juche, and in influencing North Korea’s foreign relations. This chapter explores how, after the unfinished conclusion of the Korean War in 1953, North Korea’s relationships with China and the Soviet Union became more precarious with time. With Kim Il Sung’s ‘Third World Diplomacy’ failing to bear fruit, North Korea’s world view of the US ‘hostile policy’ would only intensify as the end of the Cold War drew nigh.