The following is the third in a three-part series on future scenarios for the North. Part one can be read here, and two here.

The third of our scenarios regarding North Korea’s future implies that the DPRK of 2036 will be a unified state, after a unification with the mighty South (essentially, like it or not, on South Korean terms).

Though it is rather pointless to speculate about the probability of the two scenarios we discussed before, it seems that a future unification-by-absorption is much more likely than a successful ‘developmental dictatorship with North Korean characteristics’ or a pro-Chinese puppet government.

In fact,