North Korea’s Emergence as an International Security Actor

As Russia turns to Pyongyang for reinforcements against Ukraine, we explore the events that have shaped North Korea as a security actor.

Following the stalling of the ‘Six Party’ talks about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme in 2008, the country attracted little international attention until 2019 and Donald Trump’s ultimately fruitless attempts to unlock the relationship through summit diplomacy. During the Biden administration there have been few initiatives towards North Korea; Washington has focused instead on strengthening the relationship with South Korea and other regional allies.

As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, Russia has increasingly turned to North Korea for weapons and, more recently, also troops.

In this episode, host Neil Melvin is joined by Dr Philip Shetler-Jones, Senior Research Fellow at RUSI, and Ha Chae Kyoun (CK), former visiting fellow at RUSI under the Korea Foundation project, to discuss the implications of North Korea’s involvement, and how other countries are responding.

This episode is brought to you as part of the Korea Programme, sponsored by the Korea Foundation.