Reading Pyongyang Through the Cracks of the International System

In 2023, three North Korea analysts identified what they believe most people studying the country get wrong, and how analysts can avoid those traps. Three years later, we asked them to revisit their arguments and offer fresh insights into what North Korean propaganda reveals about Pyongyang’s priorities.Image: The KremlinIn your 2023 article, you said the key to analyzing North Korean propaganda is identifying what is new and figuring out the reasons for any changes. What changes have you all observed in North Korean propaganda since 2023, and what are the potential reasons for those shifts? One of the biggest changes since 2023 is that some shifts we initially observed in North Korean rhetoric have since been reinforced through policy and institutional changes. North Korea’s growing confidence in its nuclear capabilities, its reassessment of the U.S. strategic importance to its foreign policy, and the opportunities created by Russia’s war may help explain these shifts.This is particularly true of North Korea’s policy toward South Korea. In December 2023, Pyongyang began fundamentally recasting its relationship with Seoul, abandoning the decades-old framework aimed at unification, subsequently defining South Korea as the “most hostile state” and removing references to unification from the Workers’ Party charter and the constitution.North Korea’s external relationships have changed as well. When we wrote the 2023 article, we pointed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s use of “strategic and tactical cooperation” with Russia as noteworthy because that formulation had traditionally been associated with China. That turned out to be an early indicator of a much larger shift. North Korea and Russia have since signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, expanded and institutionalized cooperation across multiple domains, and Pyongyang has sent troops and weapons to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.Your piece laid out a set of dos and don’ts for analyzing North Korea. With Pyongyang rewriting its party charter, fighting alongside Russia, and possibly heading