ABSTRACT
This chapter looks inside North Korean media to explain why the North Korean government depicts, at times, South Korea as a potential partner instead of a threat. Through a securitisation analysis of selected periods in the past 20 years, this chapter establishes a link between the use of foreign security threats for political legitimation and policy, and the research fields of autocratic legitimation, securitisation, and North Korea studies are linked in a novel approach to understand legitimation in North Korea. This chapter furthermore shows that the establishment of South Korea as security issue is performed for various political purposes, such as strengthening the government's domestic legitimacy and influencing diplomacy. Accordingly, North Korea strategically in- and excludes themes linked to South Korea and integrates South Korean actors into the North Korean discourse. This chapter contributes to the study of North Korea and autocratic legitimation by illuminating dynamics that secure North Korea's political stability. Being aware of how such dynamics influence political stability helps outside actors to formulate more successful North Korea policy by systematically (de)emphasising them. As the underlying mechanisms are not unique to North Korea, researchers of other autocratic states may also profit from the results of this study.
