“Why We Need a Regional Approach for Crisis Management with North Korea,” is the title of an OpEd written by Dr. Deon Canyon and Dr. Sungmin Cho for Security Nexus. This paper emphasizes the need for regional cooperation and the challenges involved in addressing crisis management in North Korea.

Excerpt:
While North Korea has an image of a “rogue state” that threatens neighboring countries with missiles and nuclear arsenals, we must not forget that North Korean people are experiencing starvation, malnutrition, poor health system, swine flu, flooding, drought, and land-slides, all of which will only be exacerbated in the wake of the global COVID-19 crisis. North Korea’s internal problems are expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future and disasters experienced during the summer of 2020 will exacerbate current circumstances. Separating HADR from sanction issues and being proactive in providing assistance to a suffering population may prove to be the most effective strategy for engaging with Pyongyang.

Dr.Deon Canyon and Dr. Sungmin Cho are professors at the Daniel K Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. The views expressed in this article are their own.

Security Nexus is a peer-reviewed, online journal published by the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

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