Constructions of Identity and Threat in North Korea’s “Diplomatic War” Discourse

This paper analyzes North Korea’s most central foreign policy discourse in the post-Cold War era: the discourse of the Diplomatic War. Embedding North Korea’s nuclear strive and its conflictual relations with a significant Other – the U.S. – the analysis of this discourse provides crucial insights into the immaterial factors driving North Korea’s foreign relations in the post-Cold War era. In specific, the study focusses on two central characteristics of the discourse, i.e. the writing of identity and the construction of dangers and fear. Applying a poststructuralist, discourse analytical approach the study investigates the constitutive and performative relation between identity and threat constructions and North Korean foreign policy in the context of the nuclear issue, focusing on the question how identity rhetoric and attributions are used to legitimize its nuclear endeavors.