The best way to collapse North Korea is to boost the credibility, from a nationa

listic (not economic) standpoint, of the South Korean government and political s
ystem in the eyes of both North and South Koreans.

Many Westerners imagine that North Koreans are unaware that they are poorer and
more repressed than South Koreans. That might have been the case in the 1980s a
nd before. But ever since the 1990s famine, the North Korean propaganda system
has wisely pivoted away from claiming that the Northerners are wealthier, to fra
nkly acknowledging that Southerners are richer. However, the North Korean propa
ganda legitimizes its regime by saying that only the North is authentically Kore
an, only the North can be a source of nationalistic pride and self-respect becau
se it is fiercely independent. The hunger and hardship experienced by North Kor
eans is turned into a strengthening factor for the regime, rather than an underm
ining factor, because it is portrayed as evidence of the superior moral virtue,
authenticity, and willingness to engage in self-sacrifice for the cause of a str
ong and independent state.

This is why Western propaganda emphasizing the ample food, higher standard of li
ving, and so on available to South Koreans doesn't work. It is scorned by North
Koreans as the corrupting, degrading payoff for selling out Korea to American d
omination, no more persuasive than a high-end prostitute flaunting her jewelry.
This North Korean propaganda has influence even in South Korea, where many have
a sense of guilt and even humiliation about the situation, and a sense that for
all its faults North Korea is arguably morally superior.

What it all comes down to is that Koreans on both sides of the DMZ are fiercely
nationalistic, even ethnically chauvinistic, but few on either side of the DMZ h
ave a strong emotional attachments to the South Korean government and political
system. Most South Koreans understand that the North is a tyranny and would not
want to live under that system, but they do not take pride in their own Republi
c, do not regard their state as the embodiment of their nation.

America needs to boost the prestige, the "face", of the South Korean government
and system, specifically as something that is looked up to, respected, and impre
ssive around the world, as something that reflects well on the Korean nation. I
t needs to permit the South Korean government to publicly "win" in a dispute of
some kind or other with the US, or to be seen as dictating terms, getting its ow
n way, being in charge, etc. The South Korean government and system need to be s
een as being protectors of Korean identity and culture and independence, not jus
t as effective managers of the economy.

By taking away the North's claim to be the sole protector of Korean pride and in
dependence, this line of public relations and propaganda can take away the North
Korean government''s justification to its people for its existence.