Summary

Since the North Korean nuclear crisis began in the early 1990s, various efforts have been made to induce North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. Both engagement approaches as well as pressure tactics have been employed, yet nothing has worked, and North Korea is essentially a nuclear power considering that it has conducted six nuclear tests. Why do North Korea want nuclear weapons, and why have previous denuclearization efforts failed? It could be argued that the reason for the failures of previous efforts is that these strategies did not address the underlying basis for North Korea’s nuclear pursuit, regime security. Utilizing the poliheuristic theory, the motive of North Korea’s nuclear development and why previous policies have failed may be theoretically and empirically explained.