The following article is a column by Aidan Foster-Carter, an honorary senior research fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University in England.

In a recent article for NK News, Benjamin Young advanced the rather speculative and contentious argument that “for top North Korean officials, the quickest way to ensure their system’s long-term survival is through reunification.”

I’m all for taking the DPRK seriously. As a formerfar-leftist, who has now shed all peacenik delusions, I am clear-eyed that this regime is an utterly malign actor — a true rogue state. Given half a chance, North Korea will do