ABSTRACT
This chapter navigates why discontent has remained small scale, localised, and/or unorganised, and has not led to an upsurge in collective action in North Korea. The chapter also looks at why it is difficult to create an enabling environment for civil society in this country. The chapter thus seeks the reason for the absence of civil society and/or a mass anti-regime movement even when people seem to be more empowered to influence the government's policy changes than before the marketisation period. In this, the chapter argues that it is necessary for the international community to explore and prepare for the time when external aid is allowed to resume in North Korea. As long as people do not voluntarily take collective action in North Korea, structural change in society will not be realised. Seeking a way for development aid to support an enabling environment for civil society and civil society capacity building can be a practical alternative to the repetitive security-first-over-nuclear-programme rhetoric of today.
