A U.S. expert in North Korean affairs predicts that the future of North Korea’s heir apparent Kim Jong-un will likely be stable.

Jennifer Lind, a political science professor at Dartmouth College, made the prediction in a contribution to a foreign affairs magazine.

She said that countries concerned have been soft and lenient with North Korea out of concerns about geopolitical chaos that could follow the collapse of the North Korean regime.

Lind forecast that the Pyongyang regime would stay stable even if Kim Jong-un succeeds his father. Lind said that Kim Jong-un is free from the threat of a military coup due to a system his grandfather Kim Il-sung invented to prevent a social revolution and resistance from the military.

She noted that the U.S. has taken no retaliatory action against North Korea for the sinking of South Korea’s “Cheonan” naval vessel.