GSIPM

In this session we will look at the human security challenges facing the people of North Korea. A country of about 24.5 million people, with an estimated GDP per capital in 2011 of $1,800, North Korea is one of the poorest countries on earth. Yet, the country boasts the fourth largest army in the world, at about 1,106,000 armed personnel and its government is bent on developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. In the 1990s millions of its people died of starvation due to such natural causes as drought and flooding, as well as because of a man-made cause, i.e., failed economic policy generally and failed agricultural policy specifically. In the face of the human security crisis in the internationally isolated North Korea, what should the international community do? What can it do?