I beg to differ. The old Kim purged the entire Yan’an faction from the Workers’ Party right after to Korean War. He soon purged the Soviet faction as well after Stalin’s death. Also, the Juche thought replaced Marxist Leninism as North Korea’s core ideology. Finally, even after the great US-China split of 2018, Xi did little to improved ties (which were serious damaged in 2017 when Xi and Trump nominally worked together to rein in DPRK’s nuclear program, whilst DPRK detonated a nuke on day of Hangzhou G20 Summit) with Kim III despite the former now needs the latter’s support in strategic competition against the U.S. In general, Beijing sees DPRK as nothing more than a buffer against the U.S., whilst DPRK sees Beijing the same way Beijing saw the USSR in the 1960s. Pyongyang also has grievances on Beijing not willing to recognise the former as a nuclear power and treat it with genuine respect and recognition.
In essence, a united DPRK would have even more foreign policy autonomy than it has now. It would have even less incentives to align with Beijing’s interests. It would seek to be recognised another great power with its own agency.
