North Korean climate diplomacy: engagement, priorities, and opportunities for collaboration

Abstract

This study investigates North Korea’s climate diplomacy by analyzing a comprehensive dataset of 39 policy documents and 93,439 news articles through content and sentiment analysis. The research aims to provide insights into the country’s climate diplomacy approach, framing, and priorities. The findings reveal that North Korea’s climate diplomacy is primarily driven by materialistic interests, focusing on loss and damage reduction, access to climate finance, and technology transfers. The study highlights key themes in North Korea’s climate change discourse, such as economic factors, human security, and a surprisingly non-ideological stance. The sentiment analysis also indicates a collaborative approach toward the international community and strong support for UNFCCC mechanisms. The results offer valuable and nuanced implications for future diplomatic efforts, suggesting potential avenues for collaboration and engagement with North Korea on climate change issues. Nonetheless, the study also identifies several barriers to diplomatic engagement, such as North Korea’s reluctance to accept certain conditionalities associated with climate finance as well as its contentious focus on nuclear energy as a climate mitigation instrument. Overall, this research contributes to the growing literature on climate diplomacy and sheds new light on an underexplored aspect of North Korea’s foreign policy.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• climate diplomacy
• content analysis
• cooperation
• DPRK
• North Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The decision to utilize English language documents for this analysis is rooted in the specific scope of our investigation, which centers around climate diplomacy rather than domestic policymaking. Choosing English documents aligns with the international nature of our focus, as these materials are more directly tailored for engagement with the global community. The preference for English documents is further justified by the use of KCNA articles, where language-related constraints are mitigated by the extensive size of the dataset and the official translation of pertinent daily news into English by KCNA.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cesare M. Scartozzi

Cesare M. Scartozzi is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT (CGIAR). His current role involves research and programming activities aimed at promoting a transition towards inclusive and equitable low-emission development pathways. Before joining CGIAR in 2022, he completed his PhD in Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, where he examined the intersections between climate policy, finance, and security.

Gordon Kang

Gordon Kang is a senior analyst in the Regional Security Architecture Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is also a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Singapore.