On Sunday, North Korea fired a long-range rocket, defying a UN Security Council resolution which bans the country from launching rockets that may be used as ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads.
Following the incident, the UN Security Council held an emergency session and called for a response to North Korea's action. Despite Pyongyang stating the launch was made for scientific purposes, some nations saw it as a front for a ballistic missile test, and therefore a threat to the international community.
"I don't think they [the UN] can come with very much, frankly, I mean they can make things slightly more inconvenient for the servicing of consumption needs of very top segments of North Korean society, but I don't think they can do anything else," Professor Dunn, who teaches politics at King's College in Cambridge, told Radio Sputnik.
Dunn added that economic sanctions against a country like North Korea, and pretty much any external attempts to intervene to alter the government, are ineffective. If any change is possible in the country it should come from within North Korea itself.
But if the country isn't willing to change from within, the only other option to "fix" the North Korean government would be to invade it militarily, Dunn explained. However, he added that a military action against North Korea would result in a large-scale war and catastrophe for millions of people.
"It's going to be dangerous for the rest of the world to try to fix [North Korea]," Dunn said.
Tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs escalated after Pyongyang said on January 6 that it had successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test, triggering condemnation from the international community.
