ABSTRACT
Analysts of international affairs rarely consider the impact of natural phenomena on state behavior. But history provides a number of examples in which nature, not human choice, has determined the course of policy and has decided the fates of empires and nation-states. Desertification stopped the southward expansion of the ancient Egyptian dynasties; the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the city of Pompeii; and just a few successive years of extreme drought, followed by an insect invasion, forced many inhabitants of the Mayan states to abandon their glorious cities. Year after year, hurricanes in the Caribbean wreak havoc on local economies, leaving them in permanent need of foreign assistance for rehabilitation: that is, as long as other states are willing to help them survive. North Korea may be no exception in this regard. This chapter explores the long-term effects of the natural disasters on the Korean Peninsula in the mid-1990s and the impact they have had on the behavior of the North Korean regime domestically and in world affairs.
