NK stable? they depend on aid from the rest of the world to keep them from collapsing and selling their weapons to terrorists, let alone attacking SK.
The only reason they haven't been nuked yet is because it's right next to China, and because they are so miserable sending them some food scraps is cheaper than bombing them.
I treated North Korea asymptotically with respect to technological development and authoritarianism. I should have been clearer about that beyond using the word "approaching". Sorry about that.
Think of an authoritarian country with universal surveillance and the ability to dispatch fully automated enforcement. That system is very stable at eliminating chaotic subsystems before they become threatening. It is also remarkably resilient in its ability to contract to its power base, re-charge, and then re-project from a solid platform (think Assad and his Alawite base except with no question of wavering loyalty). This makes it resilient even during tail events.
[...] there is an absolutely absurd amount of conventional artillery positioned at the DMZ just a few dozen kilometres away from Seoul. If all out war were to occur the city, with it's 25million or so citizens, could be levelled in hours.
The only reason they haven't been nuked yet is because it's right next to China, and because they are so miserable sending them some food scraps is cheaper than bombing them.