El Podcast

E160: How North Korea’s Dictatorship Endures: Historian Fyodor Tertitskiy Explains

Episode Summary

Historian Fyodor Tertitskiy, PhD, explains how North Korea’s Kim dynasty endures through isolation, terror, elite incentives, and nuclear deterrence—making collapse or unification unlikely. He traces the regime’s Soviet-backed origins, mythmaking, black-market economy, cyber theft, and succession risks, stressing that democracy’s triumph isn’t guaranteed.

Episode Notes

A deep dive with historian Dr. Fyodor Tertitskiy on how North Korea’s dynasty survives—through isolation, terror, and nukes—and why collapse or unification is far from inevitable.

Guest bio:
Fyodor Tertitskiy, PhD, is a Russian-born historian of North Korea and a senior research fellow at Kookmin University (Seoul). A naturalized South Korean based in Seoul, he is the author of Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung. He speaks Russian, Korean, and English, has visited North Korea (2014, 2017), and researches using Soviet, North Korean, and Korean-language sources.

Topics discussed:

• Daily life under extreme authoritarianism (no open internet, monitored communications, mandatory leader portraits)
• Kim Il-sung’s rise via Soviet backing; historical fabrications in official narratives
• 1990s famine, loss of sponsors, rise of black markets and bribery
• Nukes/missiles as regime-survival tools; dynasty continuity vs. unification
• Why German-style unification is unlikely (costs, politics, identity; waning support in the South)
• Regime control stack: isolation, propaganda “white list,” terror, collective punishment
• Reliability of defectors’ accounts; sensationalism vs. fabrication
• Research methods: multilingual archives, leaks, captured docs, propaganda close-reading
• Elite wealth vs. citizen poverty; renewed patronage via Russia
• Coups/assassination plots, succession uncertainty
• North Korean cyber ops and crypto theft
• “Authoritarian drift” debates vs. media hyperbole in democracies
• Life in Seoul: safety, civility, culture

Main points:

• North Korea bans information by default and enforces obedience through fear.
• Elites have everything to lose from change; nukes deter regime-ending threats.
• Unification would be socially and fiscally seismic; absent a Northern revolution, it’s improbable.
• Markets and graft sustain daily life while strategic sectors get resources.
• Collapse predictions are guesses; stable yet brittle systems can still break from shocks.
• Defector claims need case-by-case verification; mass CIA scripting is unlikely.
• Archival evidence shows key “facts” were retrofitted to build the Kim myth.
• Democracy’s victory isn’t automatic—citizens and institutions must defend it.

Top 3 quotes:

• “There is no internet unless the Supreme Leader permits it—and even then, someone from the secret police may sit next to you taking notes.”
• “They will never surrender nuclear weapons—nukes are the guarantee of the regime’s survival.”
• “The triumph of democracy is not automatic; there is no fate—evil can prevail.”