Podcast with Fyodor Tertitskiy, author of “Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea”
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 Tertitskiy, author of Pyongyang on the Brink: Sixteen Crises That Shaped North Korea (Hurst, March 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 to talk about some of these scenarios, as well as the unlikely inspiration for the book: Alternate history mods for Paradox Studio games.
Pyongyang on the Brink was reviewed by Stephen Mercado for the ARB in April 2026. You can read the review here.
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 Korean, including Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung (Hurst, February 2025), and The North Korean Army: History, Structure, Daily Life (Routledge, May 2022)
