Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 07/2013

The Worrisome State: Assessing North Korea's Security Challenges

Mark Fitzpatrick

October 2012

Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales

Abstract

For a small, impoverished nation, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) induces an extraordinary level of concern among both its immediate neighbors and the wider world. Employing a positive metaphor, which also has literal truth, one might say that North Korea “ punches above its weight. ” Yet, however charitable one might wish to be, there is little positive to say about the DPRK’s actions. The immediate security challenges posed by North Korea are multiple and formidable. The challenges include nearly the full array of what are typically described as weapons of mass destruction (WMD): a nuclear weapons program based on both plutonium separation and uranium enrichment; the world ’s third largest chemical weapons arsenal (2,500 - 5,000 metric tons of agents); a biological weapons capability that may include agent production and weaponization; and a range of ballistic missiles that may be able to deliver these weapons to immediate neighbors and perhaps further afield. The threat from these weapons is not just direct. North Korea transferred missiles and nuclear weapons technology to other outlier states and has threatened to transfer nuclear weapons to non - state actors. In addition to security challenges in the military realm, North Korea provides various reasons for concern over its state criminality and threats to human security.