In December 1991, the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. This was an event the whole world was waiting for, yet while Moscow felt torn, and the West rejoiced, there was one country where the USSR’s collapse provoked nothing but fear.

I am, of course, talking about North Korea, where they not unreasonably feared they might soon share a similar fate.

Ultimately the DPRK managed – through a combination of luck and skill – to survive until the present day, with the Kim family weathering  the many crises of the 1990s. However, in 1991, the regime’s