Beyond the Hermit Kingdom

North Korea’s International Connections Revisited

Abstract

This special issue of Korea Europe Review examines North Korea's international connections beyond its traditionally studied relationships with major powers. While scholarship has extensively examined North Korea's relations with Russia, China, the United States, and South Korea, the wider arc of its international engagement— its diplomacy with smaller and middle-power states, its participation in international organizations, its cultural outreach, its developmental projects in the Third World—remains understudied. This gap is partly attributable to the scarcity of accessible archival sources and the nature of North Korean primary sources, which tend to focus on domestic political and economic achievements rather than foreign affairs. Yet the absence of easily accessible sources is not the same as the absence of history. 

This issue of Korea Europe Review takes up that challenge. Following the journal’s commitment to transcending the traditional boundaries of area studies through interdisciplinary inquiry, the contributions gathered here examine dimensions of North Korean foreign relations that have received insufficient scholarly attention. The articles cover a wide thematic range: diplomatic ties with smaller and mid-level states; North Korea’s institutions for cultural diplomacy such as friendship associations; North Korean-led developmental projects and joint ventures in Third World countries and exchanges between the Workers’ Party of Korea and other socialist parties. Taken together, these contributions demonstrate that North Korea’s international engagement was considerably more diverse, dynamic, and globally embedded than conventional narratives have suggested, opening new avenues for the study of the DPRK in global history.