Special focus introduction : an inter-disciplinary approach to the security challenges of contemporary North Korea

In recent years, two interconnected themes have emerged as central to addressing the challenges associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) and its relationship to neighboring states in Northeast Asia: first, North Korean advancements in nuclear and missile technology, second, an increasing concern from the international community regarding North Korea’s human rights record and the correlated problem of crisis migration. These two themes pertain to two sides of a single concept: security. The first case is an example of a traditional interpretation of state-oriented security in military terms; the second represents a non-traditional aspect of human security, which takes the individual as the main referent object. In the last two decades these two issues overlapped and have influenced one another. The securitization of the challenges associated with North Korea is a consequence of the international community placing an overwhelming importance on Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile program. The focus on military security matters has influenced issues of human rights protection, international humanitarian assistance, and inter-Korean relations.1 Consequently, questions of human security are now an integral part of the state level policy-making process and the potential of these issues for regional destabilization has entered mainstream public discourse, often simplified into an ‘engage/sanction’ binary.