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North Korea is at the top of the agenda of Asia-Pacific security, but the agenda remains almost exclusively reactive, not proactive. Against this backdrop, the article argues that the key to dealing with North Korea is Pyongyang's culture of self-destruction, collectively held ideas of state-centred sacrifice designed to ensure regime survival. Fears of insecurity embedded in unequal relations with Asia-Pacific powers have lead this authoritarian state to construct and reconstruct a national identity narrative of life and death, fostering domestic solidarity against foreign powers. As an inseparable part of this ideational power, its nuclear weapons are primarily utilized to attract international attention, to maximize political and economic gains and, in the end, to guarantee regime survival. Given the dynamic of increasing accessibility to dual-use technology, ideology-based non-proliferation rules, and North Korean determination to weaponize its nuclear technology, it is time for the Asia-Pacific powers to acknowledge that North Korean nuclear proliferation is about knowledge of nuclear technology and weapons, and will continue to remain uncontrolled and directionless. Autonomy of knowledge suggests that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is unenforceable in North Korea and, by extension, in other parts of the world, a problem the international community must face and accept. North Korea's neighbours, not the distant powers, must take the lead in regional security, seeking solutions acceptable to all the parties for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implications of the inability of a six-party forum established as a foundation for creating an East Asian model of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to resolve the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula. It cites that the U.S. opposed the creation of a multilateral structure in the Asia-Pacific region due to its reliance on bilateral military alliances with Asian countries. It stresses that the formal continuation of the forum can become a mechanism that can actually influence the correlation of forces.

Focuses on the call for a Northeast Asia nuclear weapon free zone. Construction of underground nuclear facilities in North Korea; Launching of three-stage Taepodong missile or satellite over Japanese territory; Intrusion of two spy boats into Japanese territorial waters; Strengthening of Japan's military capabilities.