Geopolitics of North Korea
North Korea is a country that directly borders China and Russia, and also secondarily borders United States. This geopolitical position of the Korean peninsula gives the North Korean regime, a hardly ever perceived chance to incite and even extort the superpowers in order to confirm its security and also to mine economic benefits.
North Korea
North Korea can best be described as a rare country that is situated in a rare geopolitical condition. This is a country that is often branded as a Leninist, even with its ‘Juche’ philosophy that is branded by self-dependence (Haggard & Noland, 2017). The main goal of North Korea is complete liberation in all esteems including; diplomatically, military and economically. Their philosophy recommends very little contact with the rest of the world, because it is assumed that other countries may influence and try to utilize the North Korean people in a negative way (Schmid, 2018).
There is however, one major problem with this regime and that is, its adoption to the economy. Economic independence is something that is difficult in North Korea because the situations are impossible. The state does not have enough raw materials to help feed and realize the standard living for its people hence need for the outside world (Kim, 2014). Trading with the other countries is however tricky, and complicated with their Juche ideology. The foreign policy that have been put in place can best be described by the terms ‘fear’ and ‘distrust’, and they are not helpful in establishing foreign trade relations. The strong belief of this ideology is that, other countries will never agree to a wholly sovereign North Korea; this ideology presumes that every regional influence will constantly try to control the people of North Korea (Haggard & Noland, 2017).
North Korea’s geopolitical imperatives
- Rivalling superpowers
- Nuclear weapons programme
- International negotiations
Rivalling Superpowers
The North Korean regime is grounded on a philosophy that is destined to fail. First, there is the economic independence in a geographical region that is not suitable for this purpose. The second thing is devoting much power in preserving a massive military apparatus (Schmid, 2018). Endurance for this regime was only probable since it understood the power of its geopolitical situation; this has helped the state to acquire financial aid from international states. Ever since its establishment, North Korea has been located at the fault line stuck between opposing superpowers (Schmid, 2018). At the beginning, North Korea was situated between the communists at the northern margin, China and the Soviet Union and at the Sothern margin the capitalist United States through South Korea its close ally on the southern border. After the ideological split of China and Soviet Union; North Korea became tactically positioned in the middle of three superpowers. During the Cold War, North Korea was very skilful at playing the Leninist superpowers against each other as they both were willing to have North Korea as their supporter (Haggard & Noland, 2017). This allowed Pyongyang to acquire great economic funding from these two super powers. After the Cold War ended, Soviet Union withdrew its support and North Korea suffered a major economic crisis. Instead of pursuing economic reforms, the country chose to rely on foreign aid policy through international negotiations aimed at China, U.S and United States and this is what has helped to sustain North Korea this far.
Nuclear Weapons program and how it acts as a powerful tool for North Korea
The country also has a nuclear weapons programme, which is looked as the best tool to help keep all the foreign enemies away. The nuclear weapon programme helped North Korea to be taken serious by the international community, and this has helped the country to be dealt with as a state that is important among other unilateral powers. North Korea has always used the nuclear weapon programme as an instrument of blackmail in order to help it gain foreign aid (Kim, 2014). North Korean concessions on this course are exchanged with many concessions from the other foreign negotiators. It is these non-security goals that cause North Korea’s case to be unusual when it is compared to the other countries that have nuclear weaponries programmes. Most of these other countries always attempt to advance their nuclear weaponries in secrecy in order to avoid interference from outside. North Korea on the other hand openly acknowledges their endeavours in developing nuclear weapons, which helps to show how dangerous they are (Shah, 2018). North Korea always presumes to get more concessions from the global community and they get to be remunerated for each step they take on the issue and this includes even coming to the negotiation table. Normally, the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction is always kept in complete secrecy till the weapons are ready for use (Shah, 2018). North Korea however, because of its geological situation plays risky games that cannot be played by other regimes. There is no singe regime that is involved in the Korean peninsula, which is prepared to militarily act counter to North Korea as long as the provocations by North Korea are not seriously distressing them.
International Negotiations and how they are used to the advantage of North Korea
North Korea understands the global uncertainties of unsteadiness and chaos, it takes advantage of it by playing the unsteadiness card during the negotiations. This helps the country to gain more concessions from its counterparts. North Korea also uses the tactic of constantly slowing down all the intercession procedures by instigating problems about the facts and causing the negotiations to be as complicated as possible (Lee, 2014). This is one of the reasons why Pyongyang does not want to discuss about the nuclear program as an secluded subject, hence the constant inclusions of other themes such as energy deals, economic and security arrangements and South Korea and U.S relations among many others. Making the negotiation process complicated helps to slow down the process and also helps in sabotaging sections of it, a good example being the Banco Delta Asia affair. North Korea refused to proceed with the negotiations when their accounts in the bank were frozen by the U.S with accusations that they had been used for illegal activities. This was a small issue that could have been sorted without implicating the negotiations, but North Korea made a big deal out of it, causing the negotiations to be interrupted.
North Korea has over the years been successful in dealing with international community pressures. There has been pressure from the international community to end the nuclear power programme of Pyongyang, which has continuously been slowed down over the years. North Korea’s negotiation strategy has always been perceived as impolite and reluctant by the media in the Western regions, it is however imperative to acknowledge that this conduct is not destined to end the concession procedure (Watson, 2012). North Korea gains nothing from the ending of the negotiations, this country need these negotiations in order to get the foreign funds. Dragging the negotiations allows North Korea to continue receiving aids for natural disasters by the international community. North Korea is not likely to ever give up its nuclear weapons program, since this is its only power and leverage towards the international community (Campbell & Chi, 2016). Pyongyang is not illogical at all; it is only skilful in playing the game of global politics. When the leadership of North Korea discover that the destruction of the nuclear programme is the utmost gainful action, it will not hesitate in destroying it. These outcomes are however only known to very small group of people in Pyongyang.
Geopolitics of North Korea and the states involved
Geopolitical position is a very important tool for North Korea in the foreign policy of the Pyongyang administration. This is because all the countries that are earnestly involved in the Korean peninsula have their particular definite motives to try and avoid martial war with the North Koreans. One of the countries that is suffering greatly is South Korea, where all the peninsula aggressions are normally targeted being considered the U.S vassal state (Lee, 2014). It is assumed that South Korea is forcing a reunification of Korea under the Western dogma. The nuclear weapons of Pyongyang are most specially directed at South Korea and the U.S. North Korea often threatens to destroy Seoul, the capital city of South Korea which is only 60 kilometres from the border (Campbell & Chi, 2016). South Korea, which has been focusing on steadiness and economic growth is not interested in war and will try to prevent it at all cost and this is what has led to its substantial growth and prosperity. The U.S cannot act militarily without the consent of its ally South Korea, mostly because its people are not openly targeted by North Korean conduct (Watson, 2012). The U.S hence prefers to give in to the demands of North Korea rather than become regimentally intricate in geopolitical hotspot that could intensify major matters with the other superpowers. Russia plays an insignificant role on the Korean peninsula; it has better commercial links with South Korea and Japan than with North Korea (Campbell & Chi, 2016). Russia hence has minute consideration for the pressure seeking administration and the only reasons it supports North Korea in the diplomatic negotiations is because it dislikes America. Russia also worries about the chaos that may rise after the collapse of the Pyongyang triggering refugees to go to Russia (Watson, 2012). It is this same fear of chaos that causes China to continue to support the North Korean administration. Though the Chinese leaders dislike the North Korean provocations, they do not consider them enough to end their strategic partnership. Commotion and unsteadiness in North Korea may negatively affect the whole area, which is focused on economic development and steadiness.
Conclusion
North Korea is playing a dangerous game that very few states would attempt. By irritating other states including the superpowers, the command has been able to attract economic assistance that they require for survival. The country has been able to use the extorting policy to their advantage because of their geopolitical situation where they are surrounded by rivalling superpowers. All the countries that surround North Korea are all focused on economic development and steadiness and so none of them is willing to get into conflicts with North Korea. It is interesting to see how North Korea, despite being one of the deprived nations in the world has been able to influence and intimidate some of the most wealthy nations like China and the U.S. This has only been made possible because of its geopolitical situation; other countries with comparable GDP would never be able or even allowed to have the same behaviour. North Korean leaders understand the advantage of their positions and their fully utilize it to their advantage by using tension seeking behaviours to force concessions. The on-going international pressure on North Korea to constrain its nuclear program is important and it should continue. This helps in limiting global illicit actions and immense abuse of human rights. What the international community hopes is that the rulers in North Korea will come to understand that their policies will not work forever, and that they have the capacity to advance economically and also in the global status by introducing some economic modifications. The North Korean command should be pushed in the right and most favourite course by all the states that are involved in the geopolitical hotspot, which will hopefully lead to steady political growth for the country.
References
Campbell, C., & Chi, Z. (2016). Kim’s Last Laugh. TIME Magazine, 188(12), 28–31.
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Haggard, S., & Noland, M. (2017). Hard Target : Sanctions, Inducements, and the Case of
North Korea. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1519317&site=ehost-live
Kim, H. (2014). Stifled Growth and Added Suffering. Critical Asian Studies, 46(1), 91–112.
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