North Korea has been the focus of increasing international interest of late. Much of it has been owing to its burgeoning nuclear weapons programme, which has been described by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as having entered a ‘new phase’ following a doubling of its uranium enrichment capacity. The reclusive north-east Asian nation has coupled its uranium enrichment programme with efforts at bolstering its already significantly advanced long-range strategic ballistic missile programme, fuelling concerns in the West about nightmare scenarios involving nuclear-tipped North Korean missiles raining down on the United States’ Pacific coast.