Hazel Smith said Kim Jong-Un would continue with his nuclear programme to act as a deterrent until a security deal was agreed.
North Korea has fired another missile into the Sea of Japan, sparking further fears Kim Jong-un could trigger World War 3.
Professor Smith, who lived in North Korea and is based at SOAS in London, said ongoing conflict with South Korea, the United States and Japan meant the programme would not stop soon.
Speaking on Victoria Derbyshire on the BBC, she said: “While there are ongoing security conflicts between the major protagonists in the region, North and South Korea, North Korea and the United States, North Korea and Japan, until there’s a security deal that resolves the underlying political problems, then they’re going to continue with the missile development programme, which is what this test was about.
“They’re also going to continue to develop their nuclear weapons programme.
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“We know they’re going to do this because they’ve told us.
“The rational for that is that they consider, whether we agree with them or not, that they’ve got a nuclear deterrent which prevents anybody invading them and so therefore they’re going to continue with this programme.”
South Korea’s military said Kim’s regime fired the “unidentified projectile” from Pyongyang towards the sea at 5:57am local time.
The Japanese government’s J-Alert warning system advised people in the area to take precautions.
Warnings were issued across Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata and Nagano.
But public broadcaster NHK said there was no sign of damage and the Japanese military did not attempt to shoot down the missile.
It passed over Japanese territory at around 6:06am local time before breaking into three pieces, officials in Tokyo said.
The missile is reported to have fallen into waters 1,180km east of Cape Erimo on the island of Hokkaido.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he would do all in his power to protect the Japanese public after the missile test.