North Korea Through the Lens of World Politics: A Comparative Analysis

This essay delves into the political landscape of North Korea, analyzing its actions and ideologies through the frameworks of realism, constructivism, and liberalism. The essay begins by outlining North Korea's self-reliant ideology and authoritarian rule under Kim Jong-un, highlighting its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its historical context. It then examines the country's behavior through the lenses of realism, which emphasizes material power and security; constructivism, which focuses on socially constructed aspects of international relations; and liberalism, which prioritizes government structure and human rights. The author concludes by aligning with the realist perspective, emphasizing North Korea's focus on self-reliance, military power, and its strategic pursuit of resources and power to maintain its position on the global stage. The essay references several academic sources to support its claims.

Running head: POLITICS AND POLICY STUDIES
POLITICS AND POLICY STUDIES
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Author Note

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How should we currently view the current situation with North Korea from
the perspective of theories of world politics? Describe the situation from
the views of realism, constructivism and liberalism. Which of these lenses
do you subscribe to? If none, then describe your own theory of world
politics?
North Korea is a country which is viewed very differently in comparison to other
countries. North Korea highly believes in self-reliance which is considered to be the state
ideology of the country. It can be seen that the country follows an authoritarian rule or
follows dictatorship as it can be seen that Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of the country
shows full dominance over the country. He states that the man is basically the master of his
own destiny and the Korean citizens need to act as the main master of construction and
revolution which will help them in becoming strong and self-reliant which will help the
company in achieving true socialism. However, it has been seen that the supreme leader does
not follow this. From the perspective of world theories, North Korea is currently viewed as a
realist state which highly focuses on material power and security. North Korea seeks for
power which has led the country to be highly involves in creating nuclear weapons which can
contribute to mass destruction. Reports suggest that North Korea has tested several missiles
since their first testing which had been conducted in the year, 1984 (Chang 2020). Nuclear
weapons are considered to be a complex and a modern issue in terms of international law.
According to the theory of realism, there are constraints and barriers in politics which
generally result from the egoistic nature of humankind and also from the absence of a specific
or central authority that is above the state (Bell 2017). Viewing the current situation from the
perspective of this theory, it can be seen that North Korea has some elements of realism. The
primary tenets of realism is statism, survival and self-help which is somewhat similar to the
situation in North Korea where the country highly believes that they cannot rely on any other

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state that will guarantee the survival of the state and also this country is governed by anarchy
if viewed properly as it does not have a proper central authority.
According to theory of liberalism, it is important for a country to have a proper and
well-structured government which is essential and important in order to protect people of the
country from being harmed by any other person or country (Jahn 2019). It is said that the
judges, police and the laws are extremely important in order to secure the liberty and the life
of an individual. However, according to reports, it has been seen that North Korea does not
protect their citizens and violates several human rights laws like right to food, right to life,
violates the freedom of movement, treats citizens in the country badly, there is no freedom of
expression and many more which contradicts what the theory states (Son 2018)
The theory of constructivism states that there are certain important and significant
aspects of international relations which are socially and historically constructed and are not
constructed by the essential and important characteristics or the consequences which are
inevitable by the human nature (Kratochwil 2017). Aligning this with North Korea, it can be
seen that there are some elements of constructivism in North Korea. North Korea is
somewhat constructed historically and socially and is seen to follow the historical methods of
monarchy and power over the citizens which can be seen in the way the supreme leader
monitors and governs the country.
Viewing North Korea from the lenses of the three theories of world politics I
somewhat subscribe to the theory of realism. I think that all the factors of the realism have
some influence on the country, North Korea. North Korea promotes self-reliance which can
be seen in realism where it states that a state can only protect themselves and help themselves
and cannot depend on the help provided by other states for their survival. The other aspect of
realism which it holds is that in the pursuit of the interests of the citizens or people, states will

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make an attempt to mass resources and the relations between the states will be determined
with levels of power. The level of power stated in realism is basically the political, economic
and military capabilities of a state. It has been seen that North Korea highly emphasizes in
their military and in their economy and it is said that North Korea has one of the largest
military power and special forces and also the largest fleet of submarines. This shows the
power that North Korea wants to create in order to be self-sufficient and self-reliant and also
to have powers in order to dominate the major countries across the globe to become the most
powerful country.

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Reference
Bell, Duncan. "Political realism and international relations." Philosophy Compass 12, no. 2
(2017): e12403.
Chang, Ryan. "Nuclear Weapons and the Need for a No-First-Use Agreement between the
United States and South Korea for North Korea." Sw. J. Int'l L. 26 (2020): 171.
Jahn, Beate. "The sorcerer’s apprentice: Liberalism, ideology, and religion in world
politics." International Relations 33, no. 2 (2019): 322-337.
Kratochwil, Friedrich. "Constructivism." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. 2017.
Son, Sarah A. "North Korea's human rights insecurity: State image management in the post‐
UN COI era." Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies 5, no. 1 (2018): 138-149.
.