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North Korea has posed a threat to stability in Northeast Asia for decades. Since Kim Jong-un assumed power, this threat has both increased and broadened. Since 2011, the small, isolated nation has detonated nuclear weapons multiple times, tested a wide variety of ballistic missiles, expanded naval and ground systems that threaten South Korea, and routinely employs hostile rhetoric. Another threat it poses has been less recognized: North Korea presents a potentially greater risk to American interests by exporting its weapons systems to other volatile regions worldwide.In North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa, Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. analyzes relevant North Korean military capabilities, what arms the nation provides, and to whom, how it skirts its sanctions, and how North Korea's activities can best be contained. He traces illicit networks that lead to state and nonstate actors in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and throughout Africa, including at least a dozen nations. The potential proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons technology and the vehicles that carry it, including ballistic missiles and artillery, represent a broader threat than the leadership in Pyongyang. Including training and infrastructure support, North Korea's profits may range into the billions of dollars, all concealed in illicit networks and front companies so complex that the nation struggles to track and control them. Bechtol not only presents an accurate picture of the current North Korean threat -- he also outlines methodologies that Washington and the international community must embrace in order to contain it.

Purpose-The DPRK has maintained an extensive array of foreign relationships over the past decades, both for political and economic gains. This article evaluates the impact of the current sanction regime on the DPRK's activities with African countries. Design/Methodology/Approach-The analysis is conducted by using a bespoke behavior framework based on Stephen Walt's \"balance of threat\" theory. This framework develops the concepts of balancing, defensive bandwagoning, and opportunistic bandwagoning as potential behaviors of African states following the imposition of United Nations Security Council Resolutions to sanction North Korea from 2006 until 2017. Findings-Evidence suggests that some long-standing relationships based on military and economic cooperation have been severed in recent years; thus, it supports a general balancing behavior. Findings also suggest that a specific group of countries subscribe to new opportunistic and defensive bandwagoning by embarking on talks and partnerships in the fields of health and science, regardless of the sanction regime, signaling defiance against a Western-led world order. Practical Implications-Patterns of rapprochements between North and South Korea and between North Korea and the United States have large implications for the potential removal of UNSCRs that paralyze North Korean foreign relations and slow its potential development. A clearer understanding of the DPRK's economic and market networks abroad, as well as potential political allies, can help differentiate between legitimate activities and illegal ones. Hence, it allows a more informed approach to engage with the DPRK. Originality/Value-The article looks at the DPRK's relationships with countries that have often been ignored because they were not seen as important, given that North Korea was never expected to be successful in developing advanced military and nuclear technology. It is original as it looks at declassified official documents, official economic and military trade records and news archives, and presents an encompassing analysis of 51 African countries' relationships with the DPRK over time. The results of the study are valuable as they add to the understanding of the DPRK's foreign policy behavior, which is important given its potential nuclear status.

The DPRK now trades in arms with the Middle East. However, in the October War (1973) the DPRK first began military cooperation with the Middle East by sending troops and providing unrequited military support. This switch was made to win support within the UN from these Middle Eastern countries, and so to counteract the US presence in the UN. Failing this, the DPRK withdrew from the UN in 1976. The DPRK then turned to arms trading both to build up its foreign currency reserves and to help liberate developing countries from US control.