North Korea and the Crossing of Nuclear Rubicon

Abstract

In this chapter, I apply the conceptual apparatus introduced in previous chapters to study the (re)construction of North Korea’s deviant image in global nuclear politics during the second nuclear crisis in the North Korean Peninsula (2002–2018). I use this framework to analytically unpack the North Korean case in five sections, which correspond to five distinct dimensions of stigma politics: (1) stigma nexus, (2) stigma imposition, (3) stigma management, (4) stigma reversal, and (5) stigma power. In turn, I discuss the implications of these processes for the dynamics of the normative structure of the nonproliferation game.