Introduction

This chapter introduces the main topic of the book; North Korean foreign policy analysis. It argues that not much attention has been paid either to North Korean perceptions of its role in international politics or to the evolution of those perceptions. As the main aim of the book is to fill the existing gap, it focuses on the issue of North Korean foreign-political roles and their projection onto the practical foreign policies of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In order to grasp this phenomenon, the conceptual framework of the role theory is used. The chapter also summarizes the main goals of the book which is to better understand how North Korea perceives the part it plays (or should play) in international politics and how its interaction with other actors impacts that.