North Korea and Northeast Asian Regional Security

Abstract

North Korea and Northeast Asian Regional Security Simon Shen, ed. New York: Routledge. 2015. 175 pp. Hardcover, $160.00, ISBN 978-1- 1388-2855-1.Since the early 1990s, the North Korean nuclear issue has represented the most controversial point in the analysis of the security regime of Northeast Asia. After the end of the Cold War, scholars, analysts and politicians form all over the world started to predict the imminent and sudden collapse of North Korean regime. It was assumed that this would have been followed by the reunification of the peninsula under the auspices of the Western- style liberal democratic system that had triumphed in South Korea after the democratization process of 1987. Reality, however, proved far outside the predictions of Francis Fukuyama's "end of history."Pyongyang's regime, aiming at acquiring an adequate instrument of defence and survival, embarked on the development of a military nuclear programme, that caused serious concern, not only for South Korea and Japan, but for all the major powers involved in the security regime of Northeast Asia and/or in the struggle against global nuclear proliferation.From that moment onward, a vast amount of literature has been dedicated to analysing the so- called "North Korean nuclear issue." In particular, the scholars and pundits alike have been drawn to considerations of the consequences for the region as a whole and for relations among the major powers involved.The book, North Korea and Northeast Asian Regional Security, edited by Simon Shen, is part of a broader effort to study the consequences of the second nuclear crisis. This period started from between the end of 2002 to the beginning of 2003, following the presumed discovery of a uranium enrichment program in North Korea and Pyongyang's subsequently withdrew from the Non- Proliferation Treaty. The second stage in the crisis, from 2006 to 2009, was characterized by two underground nuclear tests and the failure of the Six- Party Talks, the multilateral solution created to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. The essays that form the volume were originally published in December 2011; obviously, for this reason, the analysis cannot take into account the recent development on the peninsula, nonetheless, many of the conclusions reached by the authors are still valid today.The main characteristic of the book, representing both a point of strength and a weakness, is the heterogeneity of the perspectives through which the North Korean nuclear issue is understood. On the one hand, this diversity creates a certain degree of confusion in the reader, on the other, it offers the reader a broader view of the issues, moving beyond traditional security approaches which monopolize the analysis of the Korean Peninsula. While reading the volume, we pass from essays that make a wide use of international relations theory to discuss relations among states in the region, to analysis of the domestic dimensions of the various actors involved. It is the latter that tend to catch the eye of the reader, as these perspectives are often absent in studies of the North Korean nuclear issue.Although there is no formal division within the volume, the essays can be divided following two different criteria. The first draws a separation between the Korean peninsula (the first three essays), and the interests of the major powers of the region-China, United States, Japan and Russia-in the North Korean nuclear issue. The second criteria is more subtle, but it is also the more interesting as it divides the volume between a traditional security and international relations (Simon Shen and Denny Roy) approach and a focus on how domestic politics impact the North Korean nuclear issue (Rajaram Panda, Steve Lok- Wai Chung, Mong Cheung and Chi- kit Leung). Both in terms of political and social debate (Chung and Cheung) and of foreign policy making inside the country (Panda and Leung).The first essay, authored by Simon Shen, analyses the problem of nuclear proliferation through the Waltzian theory of international relations and proliferation. …