Fyodor Tertititsky, "Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea" (Hurst, 2026)

About this episode

Fyodor Tertititsky discusses his book on pivotal crises in North Korean history and their potential alternate outcomes.

North Korea has survived wars, sanctions, and isolation—to the point where it now seems that the continuation of the Kim dynasty, and a starkly divided Korea, is assured. But history is filled with events where some change might have drastically altered how a country’s development might have gone. North Korea is no different, at least according to Fyodor Tertititsky, author of Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea (Hurst, 2026). In his book, he posits sixteen different points where things might have gone differently. Maybe Japan falls too quickly in the Second World War, denying the Soviet Union the opportunity to occupy the north. Maybe Kim Il-Sung gets outcompeted, and someone else becomes head of North Korea. Maybe China never intervenes in the Korean War, or maybe one of several coups against Kim Il-Sung succeeds. Fyodor joins us today to talk about some of these scenarios, as well as the unlikely inspiration for the book: Alternate history mods for Paradox Studio games. Fyodor researches North Korean political, social and military history from South Korea, where he has been living for more than a decade. He has authored several books in English and…

People in this episode

Guest: Fyodor Tertititsky

Topics covered

• North Korea
• history
• political crises
• alternate history
• military history

Keywords

• North Korea
• Fyodor Tertititsky
• Kim Il-Sung
• alternate history
• Korean War
• political history
• military history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hurst, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Paradox Studio

Books & works: Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea, Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung, The North Korean Army

Places: North Korea, South Korea

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