Strategypage seems to think so, if increased attention by America, South Korea, and China are any indication. And when the collapse comes, you can thank the Bush administration that North Korea has no real military option to stave off defeat:
North Korean military power has declined to the point where an invasion would hurt the north more than the south. The big fear from about an invasion is that it would cause a collapse up north, and suddenly, South Korea would be responsible for 22 million poverty stricken, brainwashed North Koreans.
We engaged in a policy of Talk, talk. Die, die. We strung North Korea along with just enough aid to make them think they could get more, but not enough to reverse the decline. So instead of attacking south when they had the chance, North Korea's military is so worn out and the people so exhausted that a North Korean invasion of South Korea would be suicidal. And as a bonus, over the course of the Bush administratin we got our troops off of the DMZ where they served less as a tripwire and more as hostages that Pyongyang could threaten to bombard at any time.
And with all due respect to Seoul, I'd rather have South Korea have responsibility for 22 million poverty stricken and brainwashed North Koreans than maintain a lunatic North Korea regime intact that could one day be a nuclear threat to American soil--not to mention that this would mean South Korea and Japan are at risk, too.
Besides, "collapse" could mean either regime collapse or national collapse. The former would be far less expensive for South Korea. And far more acceptable to China which does not want a US ally right on the Yalu. They got touchy about that before, if you'll recall.
Perhaps a division of North Korea would be a barely-acceptable compromise in that case that avoids everyone's worst case scenario (Well, everyone but Kim Jong-Il).
The long collapse has taken a long time already, and so is closer to coming to pass. Perhaps it really is close. If it is, the South Koreans and Chinese have taken steps to avoid clashes as their forces move into North Korean territory.
