The NK leadership, both military and political, must know there's no realistic chance they would remain relevant after any peaceful reunification. (United Korea

The NK leadership, both military and political, must know there's no realistic chance they would remain relevant after any peaceful reunification. (United Korea would have little use for NK's gigantic standing army, and the West wouldn't countenance any kind of dictatorial model of government.) These are the two institutions which prop NK up, and the first priority of any bureaucracy is its own survival. Therefore I don't think the north really wants reunification with the south so much as absorption of the south (however unrealistic that may be). NK's talk of peaceful reunification can therefore be little more than the PR-friendly side of their bipolar coin.