Geopolitics and nuclear weapons: North Korean provocations as a tool for regime survival

North Korea is an uncommon country in an uncommon geopolitical situation. The ideology of the North Korean regime is focused on isolation and self reliance, which is almost impossible considering the agricultural circumstances and the lack of raw resources in the country. The geopolitical situation, on the other hand, appears to offer the isolationist regime a tool for survival. North Korea directly borders two great powers (China and Russia) and indirectly even one more (the United States, through its close allies South Korea and Japan). This geopolitical importance of the Korean peninsula offers the North Korean regime a rarely seen opportunity to provoke and blackmail rivalling great powers to ensure its security and to extract economic aid. This article shows that especially North Korea's nuclear weapons programme may be seen as a perfect example of how this strategy is used more or less successfully.