Won Gon Park, Chair of EAI’s Center for North Korea Studies and Professor at Ewha Womans University, explores the potential for leadership collapse in North Korea under Kim Jong Un. He identifies three key challenges to regime stability: the expansion of marketization weakening state control, the erosion of ideological legitimacy among younger generations, and North Korea’s shift from unification policy to institutionalized hostility toward South Korea. However, Park contends that leadership collapse remains uncertain due to the regime’s entrenched coercive mechanisms, the absence of via...

Commentary

• Won Gon PARK
• March 05, 2025

Sang Ki Kim, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, assesses that inter-Korean relations have reached their lowest point in 2025, largely due to DPRK’s “Two Hostile States” doctrine. Kim attributes the shift in DPRK’s ROK policy to several factors, including the perceived power imbalance between Seoul and Pyongyang, global developments such as the escalating U.S.-China rivalry and growing DPRK-Russia cooperation, and opposition to ROK’s North Korea policy. Kim urges Seoul to revise its DPRK policy by resolving hostility, re-establishing effective communica...

Commentary

• Sang Ki KIM
• February 25, 2025

Nilay Tavli (PhD student, Hanyang University) and Kyung-young Chung (Professor, Hanyang University) examine the evolving nature of North Korea's unconventional warfare tactics, focusing on the regime's recent use of balloon provocations and the resultant psychological threats to South Korea. They recommend Seoul enhance its defense capabilities and mitigate biological warfare risks, while curbing the distribution of leaflets to the North to alleviate tensions. The authors emphasize a shift in North Korea’s approach to inter-Korean relations and underscore the necessity for a proactive, compr...

Commentary

• Nilay TAVLI
• February 18, 2025