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Despite the continuing efforts to resolve the North Korean problem, with
the second US-North Korea summit and the working-level meeting in
Stockholm, there have been no signs that a resolution is near, and North
Korea remains a threat to the international community. Assistant
professor Tom Phuong Le of Pomona College goes beyond the threat
posed by North Korea’s nuclear program, discussing other dangers such
as the potential for horizontal proliferation, cyberattacks, and the
imminent humanitarian crisis which will occur when the state ultimately
fails. Professor Le explores the possible outcomes of the North Korean
situation, however it ends up. He places a strong focus on the inevitable
consequences of state failure, explaining "North Korea has acquired
nuclear weapons. The next great threat will be mass migration." He
discusses the impact that such migration would have on East Asia as a
whole, stating "North Koreans are less likely to find a state willing to
take them in by the hundreds of thousands because decades of
condemnation have sowed distrust at best and apathy at worst among
the region’s stakeholders." Finally, Professor Le talks about North Korea
as a unifying factor in East Asian international relations, predicting what
implications the disappearance of the regime as a common enemy will
have for East Asian relations going forward. [Read Commentary]
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