Strategic Player, Economic Outlier: Regional Integration and North Korea's Place in Northeast Asia

Abstract

North Korea is an outlier on the periphery of the East Asian economic miracle and simultaneously a key strategic actor amid the dance of regional great power competition. This article investigates the factors constraining North Korea's further integration into the Northeast Asian region and the implications of the maturation of its nuclear weapons program for regional security. These findings suggest that North Korea's doctrine of simultaneous nuclear weapons and economic development heralds the end of regional denuclearisation politics, which in turn is shaping the nature and extent of North Korea's integration into Northeast Asia. North Korea's nuclear gambit and the failure of regional states to adjust to North Korea as a nuclear weapons power may increase the danger of conflict escalation and expanded regional horizontal nuclear proliferation.