Abstract
North Korea’s dogged pursuit of a nuclear and ballistic missile capability has never been the sole reason for its confrontational relationship with the United States. The issue sits at the intersection of multiple narratives about where North Korea fits in U.S. strategy toward Asia. From the U.S. perspective, North Korea is a deterrence challenge, a proliferation threat, and a dangerous wildcard in the increasingly contested regional order. Each of these views of North Korea implies different policy priorities, and each favors different ways of addressing the North Korean nuclear threat. The degree to which U.S. policy emphasizes different tools of statecraft depends on how each of these three narratives defines the North Korea problem.
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