Introduction: This week

Welcome to the fifth week of the course.

In the previous week, we talked about Japan, in particular what Japan wants and and how Japan is likely to behave in the world.

Depending on Japan’s foreign policy goals, strategies, and actions, the dynamics of the international politics of Asia-Pacific will be transformed as well. Of course, besides Japan, there are many other state and non-state actors that can have impact on the regional politics of East Asia.

This is especially the case with North Korea, especially from the perspective of international security. That is why we would like to talk about North Korea today with a focus on Pyongyang’s nuclear issue.