Nukes and National Interests: Why Kim Jong-un Threatens Preemptive War.
Understanding North Korea’s core national interests is critical when it comes to predicting how its nuclear strategy will evolve.
I would like tentatively to share the insights and analysis by Mr. Manseok Lee, a Ph.D. candidate in public policy at UC Berkeley and also an active-duty Army major of South Korea. His research interests include East Asian security (U.S.-China competition), North Korea’s nuclear problem, and the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Kim Jong-un’s ambitious vow to preemptively use North Korea’s nuclear weapons to defend its “fundamental interests” has understandably drawn much attention in both Washington and Seoul. Experts have warned of a change in Pyongyang’s nuclear strategy, suggesting such a development to have significant implications for regional stability. However, some of these analyses have failed to provide meaningful policy alternatives due to being based on a theoretically and practically weak foundation.
