I think the North Korean leaders are at least aware enough of history to realize that their end is more apt to be the same as Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife than it will be like Boris Yeltsin or Mikhail Gorbachev. That is, a violent and extremely bloody revolt aimed mostly at him, personally, and anyone else connected to him – unless he can manage a pivot to some kind of liberalization of the nation.
Unfortunately for most extreme dictators, there’s no way to “manage” that pivot. The Russians were lucky that the collapse of the Soviet Union and of all of the Sovie bloc in Eastern Europe found the country so enervated that there was no will to that kind of revolt. In Romania, where they had maintained a tight grip on the reins of power – but still tried to acquiesce to public demands “a little bit” – the ruling family was slaughtered.
If Kim doesn’t manage the pivot, that’s his likely fate. He needs American help to achieve it.