> Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya

I think it's wrong to compare North Korea to those countries. For one, the post-regime change problems in those countries have been caused by Islamic insurgencies, which is not something I'd expect to happen in NK.

What, because East Asians are incapable of armed insurgency?

Are you forgetting the Viet Cong so quickly?

They certainly are, but I think it's foolish to think that a regime change would play out the same in NK as it did in countries with very different cultures. I'm skeptical that NK's ideology would be able to sustain an insurgency after too much contact with the outside.

Also, the Viet Cong were supported by a state, North Vietnam. They also weren't able to defeat South Vietnam; that took a withdrawal of US support and the actions of the regular North Vietnamese Army.

China has clearly shown a capability to govern reluctant populations. I'm not sure why occupied NK would be different.

And recall, you're playing Game of Thrones with nuclear material, so there will likely be no winning that.

Best case would likely be China just annexing the whole country and imposing martial law for the next ~30 years. At least people would be more likely to get fed, and the nukes would be safe-ish.

First of all, if there's a regime change towards democracy, there's no business with China. South Korea will liberate and take care of their emasculated, starved, brutalized relatives in North Korea. Not China, the one that's been supporting the brutalization of all of the people in North Korea.