Gyun Yeol Park, Professor at Gyeongsang National University, highlights that North Korea's one-party dictatorship centered around its supreme leader suppresses political participation and human rights and hinders North Korea from overcoming the hardships of low economic growth, inefficiency, and recessions. Considering that Seoul and Pyongyang should work together to address the issues on the Korean peninsula, Professor Park argues that seeking a nuanced understanding of North Korea is not a matter of choice but an essential task that demands serious research.

Adrian Buzo, a former professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, suggests that Kimism, or “the political philosophy of the former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung,” was shaped by cultist Japanese militarism and state-centralized Soviet Stalinism. Considering recent geopolitical trends, the failure of maximum pressure on Kim Jong-un’s regime, and the authoritarian ideologies that have shaped North Korea’s economic restructuring and nuclear program, Pyongyang will hardly opt into reforms or be persuaded by external forces.

What is the impact of the war in Ukraine on North Korea’s unprecedented military provocations? Seung-soo Hyun, a research fellow at Korea Institute for National Unification, points out that Moscow’s defense of Pyongyang at the UN Security Council has emboldened North Korea. However, considering the low economic compatibility between the two countries and tight international sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine, the bilateral economic cooperation would hardly help Pyongyang to develop its economy. Dr. Hyun claims that conflicts between Northeast Asian countries show signs of polarization and highlights the importance of monitoring how the war in Ukraine will reshape global strategic dynamics among Russia, China, and the U.S.