The government (the executive branch in this case) is kind of preoccupied right now.

They absolutely won't even blink over a Ch.11 filing, that happens all the time, like daily.

While the government could in theory inject themselves into almost anything, I'd guess the only way something like that would happen is if NK is deep in Ch.11 and it looks like liquidation.

Then the administration, if they were concerned about airline capacity, might step in and indicate they would allow a merger (possibly with conditions). Really the best they could do would be to offer to allow a merger/sale, it would be up to the parties to take them up on it and make it happen. The creditors would also need to prefer that route... pretty sure .gov can't just force creditors to forgo what they're owed to keep the planes flying. But it seems less likely that a merger could be put together that late in the game, although the BK process might make NK more attractive by unloading some inconvenient obligations.

Alternatively the BK parties + an interested dance partner might approach the DOJ and ask for relief.

This is all very hypothetical, I wouldn't bank on it, but it's not impossible either. I think in NK is near the Too Big to Fail threshold but of course that depends on the state of the industry, who's in power, and what else is going on at the time. Right now it looks like things will become more business friendly in Jan.