Die Stabilität des nordkoreanischen Regimes

eine Strategie der Nischengenerierung und des Parasitismus - (Eine Analyse in Anwendung der Evolutionären Regime-Theorie)

Abstract

It is surprising that the survival of the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea has not been sufficiently explained on a theoretical basis yet. Nevertheless, the North Korean regime has been existing for more than fifty years and hence several premature forecasts of its coming collapse have been disproved. This fascinating fact seems to be even more remarkable when the regime of this rogue state is taken into consideration. North Korea's regime is the only still existing totalitarian regime, which also can be considered to be nearly in its ideal state. Which kind of strategy is the reason for the lasting success of this regime, which in this respect is able to outshine the totalitarian phases of the People's Republic of China and of the USSR? An attempt to apply various theories concerning the transformation or stability of regimes reveals that it is very difficult to sufficiently explain the phenomenon of North Korea's stability with the help of existing theories. This unsatisfying status of research makes it necessary to develop a new theoretical approach, which is able to explain the stability of the North Korean regime in order to fill this gap. By means of applying some concepts of the Evolutionary Regime-Theory it is possible to analyse and explain in a plausible way the stability of the North Korean regime in its context. Stability seems to be achieved by the ongoing strategy of exploitation of the North Korean populace and the parasitic strategy of the militant begging diplomacy and blackmailing. This approach connects internal and external influences on behaviour and offers a consistent explanation of the reasons for and limits of (unchanged stability. In addition, a forecast of the (necessary) conditions for a further survival of the North Korean regime will be possible based on the previously analysed stability factors.