I think this makes sense to a degree. Not that you couldn't see it from a hundred miles away, but given current trajectories and politics it seems inevitable th

I think this makes sense to a degree. Not that you couldn't see it from a hundred miles away, but given current trajectories and politics it seems inevitable that a US-China rivalry will define international geopolitics for the next several decades. It is not out of the question that NK would decide to flip over to what they may perceive as a side more likely to persevere, or more cynically, a side that may treat them better than they're currently aligned with. An increasingly strained US-China relationship put NK in a similar position to that which SK was in around the Korean War: a poor country that could be propped up by Western regimes not only as a quid-pro-quo for military alignment, but an example of what you get when you align yourself with the US (see also: Japan, Gulf states, Germany). NK's nuclear weapons give them a bargaining power that may be strong enough for the current leadership to remain in power or at least unharmed. Chasing the kind of wild economic success that SK experienced when propped up by the US is a no-brainer