Editor’s note: This is the fifth and final in Andrei Lankov’s series on unification scenarios. To see previous installments click here, here, here and here. 

How is unification by absorption (the most likely endgame for North Korea) likely to be seen by the general North Korean public, the proverbial “men and women on the street”?

On the one hand, we should not forget unification by absorption can be brought about only by the collapse of the Kim family regime. Revolutions of this kind happen only when a significant majority of the politically active