The Coronavirus and its Likely Impact on North Korea” is a new paper authored by Dr. Sungmin Cho for Security Nexus. In this paper, Dr. Cho explains how the COVID-19 is likely to impact North Korea’s domestic politics and foreign policy behavior by examining the official statements, and foreign policies of North Korea observed in 2020.

Excerpt:
“I argue that there is a higher likelihood of the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea than otherwise. The epidemic does not seem to pose an immediate threat to Kim Jong-un in the short term. Still, he is most likely to be concerned about the outbreak’s secondary effects on the economy and regime legitimacy in the medium term.”

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Dr. Sungmin Cho is an Associate Professor, Daniel K Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. His Areas of Expertise are Korea, China, and Geopolitics of Northeast Asia. Dr. Cho received his PhD in Government from the Georgetown University, Master’s degree in International Relations from Peking University, and B.A. in Political Science from Korea University. He also spent a year as a visiting student at the University of British Columbia. The views expressed in this article are his own.

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