IRIN News: The Real Crisis in North Korea

The international community focuses on North Korea’s expanding nuclear capability. The narrow focus, largely due to the dictatorship’s secrecy and closed economy, overlooks North Korean citizens, explains Gianluca Spezza for IRIN News Agency. Spezza points out that Kim Jong Un, while brutal, does not wield the influence of his father or grandfather, adding that “Security apparatuses are no longer under one single point of command; neither are military corps.” North Korea has struggled economically since the fall of the Soviet Union accompanied by a tougher stance from China in demanding market rates for goods as well as severe droughts. China dominates the economy. North Korea depends on such trade and aid, but the regime resents donors and rejects the normal response of accepting policy guidance that could repair the economy. Population growth is sluggish, and the literacy rate is high. Regime collapse could be imminent, and the international community must avoid humanitarian catastrophe by preparing to initiate 26 million North Koreans. One possibility to avoid war, Spezza concludes, would be identifying North Korean elites and military officers willing to take steps to normalize the country and end the nuclear program – and then assist in taking control of the country and removing Kim Jong Un from power. – YaleGlobal