On 14 April 2023, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced that it had tested its ‘most powerful’ missile to date. A breakthrough in its weapons technology, the new solid-fuel ballistic missile was designed for rapid deployment – leaving little time to be intercepted by an adversary. Experts believed it had long-range or even intercontinental capabilities. With the launch, North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jung Un sent a warning: ‘We will strike with deadly force and respond aggressively until the enemy gives up its idle strategy and foolish behaviour and so that it will suffer in endless fear.’ Just weeks earlier, two of North Korea’s stated enemies, the United States and Republic of Korea , conducted the largest joint military exercises in South Korea in five years. The two militaries maintained that the drills were routine and defensive, a response to North Korean ‘aggression’. But North Korea’s state media viewed them as moves of ‘frantic war preparation’. Tensions were ratcheting up in an already volatile region.

This dynamic crisis simulation picks up when communication between North and South Korea breaks down following North Korea’s missile tests. Groups of six to nine participants are allocated roles in the governments of North Korea, Republic of Korea, China, USA, Japan, and Russia to solve an escalating international crisis consisting of military, health, and economic emergencies. Over the course of five phases, participants must take actions according to their roles and their allocated country’s interests.