ABSTRACT
The contrast between how North Korea and Iran responded to COVID is remarkable to observe. While, on the one hand, one can observe how the North Korean leadership denied any existence of COVID cases and continued with its defiance of sanctions; the Iranian case study demonstrated how the demand for relief of sanctions on humanitarian grounds occupied prominence in the domestic political narrative. The aim of this chapter is to put forward this contrast. Indeed, the pandemic compelled a reshaping of security conversations of many countries, but for North Korea, a single-minded focus on projecting the advancement of its nuclear capability was evident from December 2019 when the country last hinted at resuming its nuclear tests. The North Korean nuclear resolve was visible in rhetoric as well as in action since the beginning of 2020.
