Introduction: Why the Need to Reevaluate North Korea?

Abstract

How is it possible for a state seemingly as isolated and dysfunctional as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to survive? This book revisits the DPRK’s past and analyzes its present to understand the nature of its long-lost economic and military support system, framing North Korea as both a small state and a rational actor. This allows for new insights and shows that the DPRK is slowly transitioning away from collapse. Gone are the trappings associated with calling the DPRK crazy, rogue, and unmanageable. Instead, the analysis opens up the way to understand a state that is at a critical juncture, slowly willing and needing to modernize, yet as committed as ever to be independent while navigating an interdependent world.