WI: The 'Kim Dynasty' of Kim Il-sung was overthrown in North Korea during the late 80's, but Nicolae Ceaușescu and his family kept control of Romania during the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and still rule Romania in the present day?
Short of a nuclear war breaking out, I don't see how the latter is in any way possible.
Romania was a lot more connected to the European community than North Korea. The moment the first chisel started chipping away at the Berlin Wall, Ceaușescu's downfall was assured.
You could, under circumstances, stretch things out until spring '90, if the winter is a hell of a lot colder and somehow none of the myriad potential sparks fail to set off a fire, but once it's no longer cold outside, there WILL BE PROTESTS, which can only snowball once they start. (Keep in mind, there had been protests in
1977 and
1987. Assuming there won't be any in 1990 whilst everyone hears about the fall of the Iron Curtain on Radio Free Europe is foolhardy)
There is also the possibility of stretching things out a little more by having Nicolae die or retire in favor of his son,
Nicu, who then proceeds to co-opt the
dissidents within the Party, introduce his own version of Perestroika and reverse the austerity policy by contracting foreign loans and using them to pay for imports of food and consumer goods (Romania was virtually debt-free by 1989). Under these circumstances, there is a tiny chance that Nicu Ceausescu hangs on until 1992-93, when the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Romania's trade network in the Comecon finally causes snowballing protests that bring him down (if his drinking doesn't get to him first that is).