Saiko: Ningen no Anzen Hosho kara Mita Tohoku Ajia no Mirai (Rethinking People's Security in Northeast Asia)

This chapter addresses questions of human security in the context of the profound economic and political transformation which is currently reshaping the East Asian international order. At the core of current instability in Northeast Asia lies the problem of North Korea. This problem is generally seen as being one of military security, but I argue the need to refocus on the human security dimensions of the North Korean crisis, and particularly on the flow of refugees out of North Korea, which is likely to expand as the nation’s crisis deepens. I draw on William Connolly’s notion of “deep pluralism” to suggest possible new human security approaches to the challenges of a changing regional order.