# North Korea: How the Kim Regime Has Survived for 75 Years

> North Korea is the world's most isolated state and has defied predictions of its collapse for decades. Here is how the regime maintains power and why it is so hard to change.

*Section: World — By Liam Chen (World Affairs Reporter) — Published December 1, 2025 — 2 min read*

Canonical URL: https://dailyjunction.org/world/north-korea-how-it-survives
Tags: north korea, kim jong un, geopolitics, authoritarianism, east asia

## Key takeaways

- The Kim regime uses a combination of information control, coercion and genuine loyalty built through Juche ideology
- China has little interest in North Korea collapsing — the resulting instability and refugee flows threaten Chinese interests
- The nuclear programme is an insurance policy against the fate of Gaddafi and Hussein (who gave up WMD and were later removed)
- South Korea and the US have contradictory interests — the US prioritises denuclearisation, South Korea prioritises stability

## The control system

The Kim regime's durability rests on several pillars. A totalitarian information environment: virtually no access to outside information (radios are pre-tuned to state frequencies, smartphones are on a closed domestic intranet). A songbun (political caste) system that grades the population by political loyalty and allocates privileges accordingly. A network of political prison camps holding an estimated 80,000-120,000 people, creating an extreme cost to dissent. And the Juche ideology (self-reliance) that provides a coherent (if false) framework for understanding the world from inside the state.

## The Chinese relationship

China provides North Korea with the majority of its external trade and energy, and has historically protected it from the most severe UN sanctions by using its Security Council veto. This is not because China approves of North Korea: Chinese leaders find the Kim regime erratic and its nuclear programme destabilising. But China has greater interest in stability on its border than in the human rights of North Korean citizens, and no desire to see a US-allied united Korea on its doorstep.

## Why the nuclear programme is rational

North Korea's nuclear programme is frequently described as irrational. From within the regime's logic, it is not. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya gave up his WMD programme in exchange for normalised relations with the West, was later overthrown with NATO support. Saddam Hussein was removed after WMDs turned out not to exist. The regime concluded that nuclear weapons are the only reliable insurance against regime change, and nothing in the international community's subsequent behaviour has given it reason to reconsider.

## The humanitarian reality

An estimated 18-42% of North Koreans are malnourished. A famine in the 1990s killed an estimated 240,000-3.5 million people. The regime prioritises military spending and the loyalty of the elite over the food security of the general population. Diplomatic approaches to the nuclear question have largely bracketed the human rights situation, leading to sustained criticism from human rights organisations.

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## Sources

- [BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news)
- [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com)

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Daily Junction — https://dailyjunction.org/world/north-korea-how-it-survives