Trends, North Korea / The Milken Institute Review
Abstract
North Korea has been both a puzzle and an irritant to the international
community for more than half a century. This highly secretive autocratic state
possesses nuclear weapons, yet it depends on handouts to stave off mass famine. And
just when it seems to be inching toward a more rational relationship with its neighbors,
an incident like the March 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship, Cheonan,
reminds the outside world about how
little it knows about how North Korea
makes policy decisions.