Map Monday: Most Glorious Union of the Korean Peoples by Bruce Munro

This Map Monday was difficult, not because of a lack of good maps, but because of an over abundance of them. I really found it difficult to parse it down to just one featured map and then a few honorable mentions. Still after a lot of fretting I finally decided on "Most Glorious of the Korean Peoples" by Bruce Munro:

Also known as "Better Korea" I think I ended up picking this map because of the news of the Homefront sequel and someone reminding me of the Red Dawn remake recently. In both universes, North Korea manages to invade the United States and hilarity ensues. The premise is that a country that can barely manage to feed its population enough prevent them from resorting to cannibalism is somehow able to transport and supply enough of its military across the largest ocean on Earth to take on the world's sole superpower with its modern, battle-hardened military, nuclear stockpile and a heavily armed civilian population. Such an idea can only be politely be described as idiotic.

Yes I know Homefront is set in a dystopic future and in the original draft of Red Dawn the North Koreans were meant to be Chinese, but that doesn't make it less implausible. The map above, however, is just a tad more plausible. Yes it is a wank, but its a more believable wank then the franchises mentioned above even if it does require a nuclear war to get North Korea some more territory. The point of divergence is set in a world where South Korea started the Korean War and the US failed to get them international support when things turned south (hehe). Having not read many Korean War alternate histories, its nice to get a fresh point of divergence, even if the broader outcome remains unlikely.

So there you go, because some people couldn't stop talking about Best Korea, this is the map I chose. Honorable mentions this week go to Provincias Unidas del Rio de la Plata by Nanwe, The Imperial Commonwealth by False Dmitri and a map of a victorious Islamic State in Iraq and Syria by ColeMercury. If you want to submit a map for consideration for the next Map Monday, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com with your map attached and a brief description in the body of the email.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.