Is North Korea Entering International Society?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

North Korea has provoked the outrage of regional countries and the international community through its nuclear program and long‐range rocket tests, appalling human rights conditions, and widespread famine, among other issues. This indicates that North Korea still falls short of the standards of civilization from an international societal perspective, and, thus, North Korea has been seen an outcast of the existing international society. Against this backdrop, the aim of this essay is twofold. The first is to historically examine the interaction between North Korea and international society. Second, by looking at four critical sticking points – diplomatic normalization with the U.S. and Japan, compliance with international law, improvements in human rights, and economic and political reform – between North Korea and international society, this research seeks to explore the possibility of North Korea’s entry into international society. This essay argues that, despite its recent provocations of South Korea and other regional countries, North Korea has gradually increased its engagement with international society. In this context, rather than compelling North Korea to adopt international rules and norms all at once, in the long run it is more reasonable and effective to incrementally induce North Korea into reformation and engagement with the rest of the world.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

북한은 그 동안 핵실험과 장거리로켓발사, 인권문제 등으로 동북아지역뿐만 아니라 국제사회 전반에 주요 위협으로 인식되어 왔다. 이는 북한이 여전히 국제사회이론에서 제시하는 문명의 표준에 미치지 못해왔고, 따라서 국제사회의 국외자로 존재해 왔음을 의미한다. 본 논문은 이러한 조건하에 있는 북한이 그럼에도 불구하고 국제사회에 참여하는 모습을 보이고 있는지, 또 그럴 가능성이 있는지에 대해 분석한다.
우선 논문은 북한과 국제사회와의 상호작용에 대한 역사적 고찰을 실시하고, 이를 바탕으로 북한의 국제사회 참여 가능성을 평가한다. 이를 위해서 논문은 북한이 미국․일본과의 관계정상화, 국제법에 대한 적응, 인권개선, 정치․경제적 개혁이라는 네 가지 측면에서의 변화 가능성을 검토한다. 이는 국제사회이론이 국제사회 참여 여부를 평가할 때 활용하는 주요 문명의 표준들이다. 본 논문은 위의 네 가지 측면에 대한 심층 분석을 통해 북한이 한국과 동북아지역에 대한 많은 도발에도 불구하고, 다른 측면으로는 국제사회와의 관여를 일정 부분 진전시켜 왔음을 보여준다. 이는 북한핵문제와 같은 주요이슈에 대한 해결방안이 마련된다면, 북한이 점진적으로 국제사회에 참여할 가능성도 존재함을 말해주는 것이다. 따라서 국제사회의 북한에 대한 대응방안과 관련해서도 북한으로 하여금 국제사회의 규칙과 규범을 수용하도록 강제하기보다는 장기적인 관점에서 북한이 국제사회와 관여의 지평을 넓혀가도록 유도하는 것이 바람직함을 본 논문은 제시한다.

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