Originally, I had intended to write about the topic of rational actors and North Korea, but in a recent event (3-18-2016), North Korea had launched another missile into the Sea of Japan. This has been one of many missile launches that the country has been testing in recent years, and coupled with renewed vigor in nuclear weapons research (shown by their recent underground detonation tests), it only bodes ill for the security in the East Asian region.
Given the complexity of this particular subject, I will limit the focus of this article to a brief overview of the Songun ideology to identify the motivations behind North Korea's actions. Songun is North Korea's "military-first" policy, where the state prioritizes the Korean People's Army in the allocation of resources and political decision-making. While the ideology did not officially become state doctrine until 1995 after the death of Kim Il Sung, the basic idea of placing great importance behind the military has been part of the state's ideological apparatus since the division of the peninsula.
In similar fashion to Mao's ideological slogan of "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun", the historical circumstances leading to the creation of the North Korean state, and consequent ideological war (Korean War, 1950-53), the existence of the state was contingent on its ability to protect itself militarily from South Korea and the United States. Coupled with the concept of Juche, calling for the self reliance, much of the state's legitimacy hinged on its ability to remain a sovereign and independent nation (the Worker's Party of Korea is fundamentally a revolutionary party with its basis in overcoming its oppressors).
With the death of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il enacted several policies and ideological declarations to solidify his power base and legitimacy and Songun was instrumental in accomplishing that goal. Internally, there were only a few limited ways in which Kim Jong Il's position could be supplanted, and his actions ensured that these were not possible. First, the cult of personality developed around himself and his father ensured his popularity with the general populace, making him a crowd favorite, and likely martyr if he were to be removed from his position by a political rival. Second, his position as the supreme commander of the military and his policy of "military-first" ensuring his popularity with the military and making an armed coup unlikely.
The important point to take away from this is the inseparable connection between the military as a source of legitimacy for North Korea's leaders. As part of its narrative among the people and the state, North Korea's leader must display strength with internally and externally. Kim Jong Un is also tied to the same source of legitimacy that his father had built up and must maintain a military-centric attitude. Though I had initially thought that he would seek to build an economic source of legitimacy much like the People's Republic of China after the death of Mao (I raise the idea that North Korea's source of legitimacy from a cult of personality and military focus is not sustainable for a variety of reasons, including economic unsustainability and gradual erosion of cult of personality due to a generational drift from the original "supreme leaders"), North Korea remains adamant in maintaining a "military-first" attitude.
In the continued validation of its existence, the North Korean state must show itself, its people, and the outside world that it is militarily capable of providing sufficient deterrence from hostile forces from within and without. And what better way than to get your hands on a weapon that could serve as the ultimate deterrence, the nuclear weapon. While North Korea has been suspected of having nuclear capabilities for some time (through their claims, as well as observations of their detonation testings), the mere ownership of nuclear capacity is not sufficient to stand as an effective tool of deterrence. Only once the nuclear weapon has been given a proper delivery system does it become a credible threat. Given that reasoning, it is not surprising that North Korea is pursuing precisely such a course in research.
CNN - North Korea launches ballistic missiles
CNN - North Korea may have tested components of a hydrogen bomb
The Diplomat - Kim Jong-un's Nuclear Bluster May Be for Home, not Abroad
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