It is found that resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) fields have a stabilizing effect on the radiating edge plasma, realizing stable sustainment of radiative divertor (RD) operation in the Large Helical Device (LHD). Without RMP, thermal instability leads to radiative collapse. Divertor power load is reduced by a factor of 3–10 during the RMP-assisted RD phase, while maintaining relatively good core plasma confinement with confinement enhancement factor . It has also been demonstrated that the RMP field itself can initiate transition to RD operation by increasing perturbation strength, while keeping constant density and injection power. The results show a possibility of a new control knob for divertor power load in a 3D magnetic field configuration. It is also found that after the transition to RD, the energy confinement enhancement factor based on ISS04 scaling increases by a factor of 1.4 compared with the attached phase. The operation range of the RMP-assisted RD is identified in terms of RMP strength and radial location of the resonance layer of the RMP. A 3D edge radiation structure is analysed using the edge transport code EMC3-EIRENE and the results are compared with experiments. The comparison indicates that the application of RMP modulates the 3D edge radiation structure such that an intense radiation appears around the X-point of the m/n = 1/1 island in the case with RMP, while it is located at the inboard side without RMP.