Demystifying North Korea by teaching it in a comparative perspective

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Despite frequent mentions in the media and foreign policy discussions, the North American public has an extremely limited and one-sided understanding of North Korea. Most information about the country focuses solely on the Kim family's authoritarian regime, cases of human rights abuses, and threats posed by its nuclear weapons development toward the U.S. and its allies, often lacking broader historical and political contexts. The way the American public and policymakers perceive North Korea exemplifies 'orientalism,' which is the counterpart of 'American exceptionalism.' The absence of a holistic and balanced understanding of the country complicates efforts to establish realistic and pragmatic foreign policies to improve U.S.-DPRK relations. This paper explores the benefits of comparative approaches, drawing from my experience teaching the country's history and politics within the context of a comparative East Asian politics class. This course examines the political development of five East Asian states (Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, and the two Koreas) across four stages: regime formation, political integration, resource expansion, and conflict resolution. By teaching North Korea within its historical and East Asian regional context, using a comparative perspective, this course demonstrates how the country's legitimacy stems from its unique historical and political experiences. It explains why North Korea maintains legitimacy among its people, focusing on national security, survival, and political ideology. This approach encourages students to analyze North Korea beyond narrow American perspectives and to see the country as it is.