North Korean Leaders' Personality Reflection on Provocation Patterns: Narcissism and Fear

• Main Authors: Sora Lim, Sunghwah Ko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: World Association for Triple Helix and Future Strategy Studies 2020-12-01
• Series: Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
• Subjects: north korea; provocation; leader's characteristics; kim il-sung; kim jong-il; kim jong-un
• Online Access: http://koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO202036457040951.page

Over the last 70 years, South Korea has gone through countless provocations from North Korea. Provocation is something that must be delicately calculated before the actual action, since it can be extended to a serious conflict. Among the possible factors, this paper focuses on the leader's characteristic, because 1) under North Korean dictatorship, the leader's thoughts are critical influence to policies and 2) personal characteristic, especially if it is the dictator's, hardly changes even when the external circumstances change. The purpose of this paper is in analyzing the correlations between North Korean leader's characteristics and provocation pattern. First, three generations of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un's personal characteristics will be described. Next, particular provocation features in respective leader's period will follow. Lastly, how each leader's characteristic and concerns were reflected on the provocations will be analyzed.