North Korea is again in the news. The visible success of the New York Philharmonic’s February concert in Pyongyang produced a predictable wave of optimistic expectations. Combined with the talks about alleged “progress on the nuclear issue”, the concert has helped to foster an impression that the soft approach to the country is working and will eventually bring about the miraculous transformation of a destitute rogue state into a reforming nation, akin to China or Vietnam.

However, this sense of optimism needs to be kept in perspective. The North Korean regime has been striving to acquire nuclear weapons for half a century. Pyongyang needs them both as a deterrent against a foreign attack and as a negotiating chip to deploy in order to squeeze important concessions from the outside world.