The same symbolic and developmental structures that shape the regime’s use of force also limit its capacity to transform from within.

[AI translation in Hebrew and Portuguese at nancyharteveltkobrin.substack 21.04.26]

Recent reports that North Korea has again tested ballistic missiles equipped with cluster-munition warheads—designed to disperse multiple submunitions across a wide area—are not merely technical events. They are reminders of the kind of system we are dealing with: one in which the organization of force, authority, and control is tightly fused and resistant to transformation.

It is this development that turns attention, once again, to North Korea—not only as a military actor, but as a psychological and symbolic system. The question is not simply what the regime does, but how it is structured to reproduce itself.

In this context, Mitch Shin’s insightful essay, North Korea not ready for a female successor, argues that North Korea is not structurally ready for a female successor, despite the growing visibility of Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae—a name that connotes “beloved” or “cherished.” He is right to emphasize the institutional, cultural and elite constraints that would make such a transition difficult. As he notes, the system itself “was never built to receive her.” Yet these constraints can also be understood at a deeper level.

North Korea can be situated along a broader spectrum of honor–shame systems in which authority is closely tied to masculine embodiment, lineage........

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