Bad, mad, sad or rational actor? Why the 'securitization' paradigm makes for poor policy analysis of north Korea

This article argues that the dominant paradigm for understanding and explai ning north Korean domestic and international politics is in crisis. The dom inant securitization paradigm is divided into its 'bad' and 'mad' elements and is derived from the crudest of Cold War politics and theories. The para digm no longer provides a useful frame of reference for international polic y-makers having to 'do business' with north Korea. The intervention of the humanitarian community in north Korea since 1995 has both shown the obsoles cence of the securitization paradigm and provided the foundation for two al ternative approaches-the 'sad' and the 'rational actor' conceptual framewor k. The article concludes by arguing for the utility of a historicized and c ontextualized rational actor model which, it is argued, offers a realistic underpinning for international policies that seriously wish to promote peac e, stability and freedom from hunger on the Korean peninsula. South Korea's 'sunshine' policy is cited as one example of such an approach.