North Korea Emerging as a Global Threat

A world without war has long been the aspiration of humanity. With the exponential growth in the destructive power of modern weapons, preventing war and resolving conflicts peacefully have become even more critical. 

This is why the United Nations Charter bans wars of conquest in Article 2, Section 4, stating, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” North Korea has long defied the spirit of the UN Charter through frequent military provocations against South Korea, and its threats are now extending beyond the Korean Peninsula to the global stage. By pursuing nuclear development, North Korea has undermined the international nonproliferation regime. Its abrupt deployment of troops to Russia in 2024 turned it from a local destabilizing force to a global one. North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine war demonstrates that it may be willing and able to intervene in a variety of conflicts, including wars of aggression, far beyond the Korean Peninsula, which poses a threat to nations around the world.

State actors, irrespective of their political or economic systems, are expected to adhere to universal behavioral norms such as protecting their citizens, guaranteeing human rights, respecting the sovereignty of other nations, and refraining from unjust involvement in wars of conquest. However, North Korea has shown little regard for these international norms. Its involvement in regional conflicts is not limited to the Ukraine war. A notable example is the Syrian civil war, which became a full-fledged conflict in 2012 and appears to have reached resolution in December of last year with the ousting of Bashar al-Assad. Allegations of North Korea’s involvement have persisted throughout this decade-long conflict. According to a 2018 report by the UN Security Council’s panel of experts assisting the DPRK sanctions committee, North Korea exported items required in the development of chemical weapons to Syria between 2012 and early 2017. The report estimates that North Korea shipped at least 40 prohibited items, including ballistic missile components and dual-use materials that could be used in the manufacture of chemical weapons. It also states that in August 2016, North Korean missile technicians visited Syria and worked at chemical weapons and missile facilities in Barzeh, Adra, and Hama. In addition, North Korea reportedly deployed two special military detachments—Cholma-1 and Cholma-7—to Syria.

North Korean support ultimately aided the Assad regime in massacring innocent civilians. In April 2017 and May 2019, Assad attacked the rebel stronghold of Idlib in northern Syria using sarin gas and chlorine gas. The 2019 attack alone reportedly killed over a thousand people, most of them innocent civilians. The North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un and the fallen Assad regime share many similarities: First, Assad granted privileges to the Alawite sect, which comprises only about 10% of the total population; likewise, Kim Jong Un also enforces policies favoring the “core class” at the expense of most of that nation’s people. Second, both regimes have relied on harsh control, military power, and external sponsors to sustain their fragile systems. They employ political and social indoctrination to advance their agendas, block access to external information, reject reform and openness, and manipulate statistics to deceive their people. Third, these regimes have engaged in illegal interventions in foreign conflicts, driven by fears that the collapse of a similar system could undermine their own survival. The Assad regime relied heavily on economic and military support from Russia to remain in power, especially during its civil war. In return, it sent soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Similarly, North Korea provided weapons and resources to support the Assad regime in Syria, one of its stronghold in the Middle East.

In this context, the Assad regime’s demise is likely to be a source of considerable concern for Kim Jong Un. Since late 2023, North Korea has been framing interaction between the two Koreas as “hostile relations between two separate states” while actively escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. This appears to be an attempt to address the inherent vulnerabilities of its closed regime. Such efforts to prop up a fragile regime have ramifications beyond the Korean Peninsula, as North Korea is likely to intervene in conflicts worldwide if deemed necessary for its survival. It has shown a readiness to flout international norms and agreements, as demonstrated by its entrance into the Ukraine war last year and its provision of ammunition and weapons to Russia in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 (October 2006) and 1874 (May 2009). The greatest threat posed by its involvement in the Russia–Ukraine conflict is to the global nonproliferation regime. If North Korea leverages its participation in the war to strike a “dangerous deal” with Russia and acquire technologies to enhance its nuclear capabilities, it could trigger a nuclear domino effect.

Additionally, if North Korea determines that military deployments to conflicts are an effective way to secure economic resources, it may strengthen its relationships with authoritarian forces in other conflict zones. Since 2024, North Korea has been supplying ammunition, missiles, and other weaponry to Russia, forging a de facto defense supply chain partnership. Even without engaging in direct military interventions, choosing to serve as a production base for Russian weapons or military technology could disrupt the global arms trade market and intensify regional conflicts.

For nations in the Middle East, tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the actions of North Korea may feel far away. However, that nation is poised to become an imminent threat to stability in the region. It is time to recognize this risk for the growing problem it is.