Abstract

MARDERO JIMENEZ, Gabriela Guadalupe. North Korea in the 21st Century: Myths, Discourse and Pragmatism of One of the Most Totalitarian Regimes in the World. CONfines relacion. internaci. ciencia política [online]. 2022, vol.18, n.35, pp.79-103.  Epub Jan 19, 2024. ISSN 1870-3569.  https://doi.org/10.46530/cf.vi35/cnfns.n35.p.79-103.

North Korea's nuclear and missile development has been a concern for decades. The apparently unstable personality of its leadership has been crucial for this to be perceived as a threat to world security. However, its political leaders have argued that Pyongyang has armed itself as a defensive measure to ensure its survival. This clarification has not been credible for the international community, which has been trying to disarm it through diverse mechanisms. Now that North Korea argues to own a large nuclear arsenal, an argument in which diverse analysts and experts agree, a more useful approach would be to recognize it as a nuclear state and, from that stance, resume international negotiations that link up the country to the world and eventually lead to the lifting of the international sanctions to improve the quality of the daily life of its citizens, main victims of regime’s international isolation.

Keywords : security of the Korean peninsula; denuclearization; missile launches; nuclear diplomacy; North Korean myths.

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