Restoration of the Russia-North Korea Alignment in the Early 2000s: Russia’s Alliance Strategies and Achievements

Abstract:This article intends to focus on Russia’s strategies toward North Korea from the perspective of its alliance behavior following the general contour presented by Victor D. Cha in his work entitled Powerplay. The main argument of this study is that Russia has rebuilt its strategic alignment with North Korea since 2000 to constrain the undertaking of adventuristic unilateral behavior that may drag Russia into an unwanted military contingency and crisis in its border region. Since the first nuclear crisis in North Korea, its nuclear ambitions and propensity to venture has increased Russia’s fear of entrapment. With the increasing intensity of such a fear, the only option for Russia is to apply the adhesion strategy to exert a direct restraint on North Korea as a preemptive measure. The rationale for this scheme is that avoiding any crisis in the border area is an overriding diplomatic goal in the newly established Russian Federation. This argument highlights institutional aspects of alignment and suggests fundamental purposes and functions of the Russia-North Korea alignment, which remains operational.