A top American journalist is urging South Korea, China and the U.S. to start making preparations for North Korea’s possible collapse.

Fareed Zakaria said in a Washington Post column that North Korea is showing many signs of instability, adding that a meltdown of the North’s government could produce serious geopolitical problems.

Zakaria said that if the North collapses, it is easy to imagine chaos on the Korean Peninsula that triggers a series of reactions from Beijing and Washington that are competing and hostile.

He said that at some point, North Koreans are going to start moving south, to jobs, money, opportunity and freedom. He added that unless there is careful planning among South Korea, China and the United States over the North's possible collapse, all hell will break loose.