No country annoys its neighbors like North Korea. With its fourth and most recent nuclear test, North Korea has, once again, put itself in front of all major powers in Asia and beyond.
As usual, most commentary has focused on whether North Korea was bluffing with a nuclear test and whose failures should be blamed for this increasingly disturbing situation. These debates are not new. For policymakers, the hour is urgent: What can be done about North Korea and its seemingly crazy dictatorship? Before we can even begin to answer this question, it's best to take care to not fall prey to these four common myths about North Korea:
First, is the myth that North Korea under the young leader Kim Jong Un is a crazy and irrational actor. In fact, in reality, he is far from this. Actually all the evidence suggest that North Korea and the Kim family have always been rational — maybe too rational. Everything North Korea has done so far centers around the central purpose of all countries in an anarchical international environment: survival. We can say this is the case for North Korea especially because its survival, from the perspective of its leaders, is under serious threat. A nuclear test, if successful, can greatly increase the likelihood of the regime's survival. This doesn't change the fact that a nuclear North Korea might be bad news for other countries in Asia.