Introduction

This chapter examines North Korea’s foreign policy agenda with respect to its domestic political situation. North Korea’s recent foreign policy behavior concerning weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has been typically characterized by brinkmanship. By and large, two distinct lines of research have been conducted to link the domestic political situation with the foreign policy behavior of North Korea. One line of research mainly focuses on the North Korean government’s decision-making process and its influence on foreign policy. And the other line of study investigates the impact of its political culture, which is represented by the Juche ideology, on foreign policy. The chapter focuses on the political stability of the Pyongyang regime regarding the political elite’s disturbance, power struggle, and political culture. It analyzes the domestic conditions of North Korea during the first nuclear crisis of 1993-94, the missile crisis of 1997-98, and the second nuclear crisis of 2002-2003.