ABSTRACT
Analysts of North Korean foreign policy behaviour often caution against trying to provide wide-ranging and accurate explanations for Pyongyang’s actions. Many analysts and academics have studied North Korea’s behaviour for decades, so it is highly unlikely that a single book can provide the key to decipher the drivers behind North Korea’s actions. Organizational learning theory is useful to provide insights into the rationale behind North Korea’s foreign policy behaviour. It can serve to understand more clearly why Pyongyang behaves the way it does. North Korea has indeed been involved in a learning process since at least the beginning of the Clinton presidency. North Korea’s change of goal during the last two years of the Bush administration, again after Barack Obama became president, also following Kim Jong Un taking power, and finally once North Korea developed its nuclear deterrent and the youngest Kim’s regime was consolidated, suggest complex learning.
