| Резюме: | <p>This thesis analyses the state behaviour of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea/DPRK) with respect to international order, focusing upon the global nuclear order. In so doing, this thesis argues that North Korea, under certain circumstances, engages in behaviour that breaks the rules of international order and the nuclear order owing to the benefits that may be gained. Although existing literature in International Relations argues how norm-breaking behaviour within international society is met with opprobrium and the infliction of negative status, such scholarship overlooks the idea that deviant behaviour can, in fact, catalyse positive outcomes. In making this argument, this thesis pioneers the novel framework of strategic delinquency, which, at its core, focuses on three types of delinquent behaviour – provocations; norm-transgression; deception – that can be exercised in pursuit of particular material and social benefits: material benefits comprise deterrence, regime survival, and economic assistance; social benefits relate to three types of recognition, namely recognition as a sovereign, equal, and exceptional actor.</p>
<p>Through engaging in extensive documentary analysis, as well as in-depth elite interviews of senior US and South Korean officials directly involved in negotiations with North Korea, this thesis seeks to illuminate the repertoire of behaviour in which North Korea has engaged, and the benefits received, across three time periods: the ‘first nuclear crisis’ of the 1990s, the ‘second nuclear crisis’ of the 2000s, and the most recent actions of the DPRK under Kim Jong- un, particularly in the context of the Trump administration. The findings of this thesis carry important theoretical and policy implications. With respect to the former, it challenges existing conceptualisations of status in scholarship, which posit how positive outcomes for states are predominantly a result of conformity with dominant systemic norms. With respect to policy, this study has broader consequences on the current stagnant dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, and between the two Koreas. Of note, for any dialogue to bear fruit, the importance of understanding how North Korea conceptualises international order, and its place with it, cannot be overstated.</p>
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