Should We Worry About North Korea?

Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Henriksen discusses the North Korean regime’s aggressive activities, which continue to cause alarm in the international community—but do they truly threaten global security? Placing the regime’s hostile behaviors in both a political and a historical context, Thomas Henriksen argues that North Korean threats are credible and several. The regime’s capabilities for a direct nuclear attack are developing, as evidenced by their increasingly successful nuclear tests. There are also multiple avenues by which they may furnish nuclear components to other rogue regimes. Whether such threats will continue in their current state depends on several factors that are subject to change. Kim Jong-un could reveal himself as an incremental reformer. The next US president may shift our policy toward the regime. Regional conflicts might disrupt the balance of power around the Korean Peninsula. What exactly will unfold, however, and whether changes in the status quo will prove positive or negative, remains uncertain.