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North Korea in International Relations

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, is a socialist nation occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Nowadays, it is said that North Korea is one of the most authoritarian societies on the earth with its isolationist government. North Korea, however, is not isolated regarding its diplomatic relations with 161 nations. Since the signature on the Armistice Agreement with the United Nations Command, North Korea has maintained relations with China and Russia, and limited relations with other nations. It has not maintained relation with some other countries, e.g. Japan, the United States, and South Korea. Historically, North Korea had not maintained relations with most Western countries either, but it has started to build diplomatic relations with many of them including the United Kingdom and Germany since 2000. In a word, North Korea should not be isolated in international relations; nevertheless it is considered as isolated, and it is isolated in reality. Nowadays, North Korea is regarded as one of the risk factors in the global society; and I suppose its isolationism is one of the biggest reasons why it is considered so.

Throughout this essay, I would like to focus on some issues around the North Korea especially focusing on its isolationism in international relations as an issue at the global level, and consider other issues might be related to this issue using four levels of analysis.

Before I think about the isolationism of North Korea, I would like to think about what the isolationism is. There are two different types of isolationism depending on the objectives. The first one is a type of isolationism with that a country protects its interest such as resources, industries, and markets, by avoiding intervention from other countries. It usually takes part in a war if that war is beneficial and related to own country. The United States and the United Kingdom had carried out...