Continued isolation of North Korea by its new leader Kim Jong Un is a strategy of keeping his people in line that’s according to UW-Madison Political Scientist Andrew Kydd. “If the North Koreans truly knew how deprived they are, in comparison to the South Koreans, there would be a much greater likelihood the North Korean regime would be overthrown,” says Kydd.
Kydd says Un must also keep his people believing they are in danger from the outside world and the best way to accomplish this is by engaging in repeated provocations.
The largest deterrent preventing the U.S. or South Korea from engaging militarily with the North is not the communist regime’s nuclear capability, says Kydd, but its artillery cannons being in range of the South Korean capital of Seoul.
