'North Korea is the world’s most unlikely growth story. Its economy is flourishing in ways not seen in years, aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia, supplies and financing from China, and the ability to flout international sanctions to import more energy, components and materials. Chinese leader Xi Jinping traveled to North Korea this week for his first foreign trip of the year.
The Kim regime slammed its borders shut during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has since reopened to only a select few outsiders, including Russian and Western travelers and diplomats. Those visitors describe a North Korea unrecognizable from the past, especially its capital, Pyongyang, where Kim and the country’s elite live.
Restaurants there serve up brick-oven pizza and chicken wings. Diners can pay through a mobile QR-code system. Chinese electric vehicles whiz through the streets. Pyongyang has new pet stores, an internet-gaming cafe and car dealerships selling BMWs.
Kim has initiated a nationwide construction boom. Last year, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang—more than either Los Angeles or Chicago.'
WSJ
Just goes to show the nation state and how it organises and positions a nations resources is a significant factor in the wealth of nations.
Not being a subservient tribute state to the US empire gives options!
Read full article paywall free via link-
Reminds me of this article about lack of parking and traffic jams in Pyongyang:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/even-north-korea-someones-your-parking-spot-2026-05-12/
Are you colonizing North Korea at the moment because of this?
I think you confused North Korea with South Korea, my friend, because unlike South Korea, North Korea is completely independent and is not colonized or dominated by anyone.
Woooosh.
Whole point is they are not allowing anyone to colonize them.
Exactly like that .. This highlights how strategic resource management and geopolitical positioning can defy even the most intense sanctions. It’s a powerful example of how a nation’s sovereignty dictates its economic trajectory... In Iran, I have witnessed this very closely, and in many areas that were severely restricted due to the sanctions, but after a while, relying on the local and internal forces, the deficiencies were well resolved.
Yes, sanctions can backfire badly over time as the sanctioned nation/s develop their own technology and supply chains and gain the ability to develop outside of the hegemony of sanctioning powers.
It requires a strong national unity, commitment and sense of purpose, but once achieved self determination is a hugely empowering strategic asset.
Most of the world is more or less subservient militarily and monetarily to the US and its petrodollar empire- but that is changing.
Monopolies tend toward waste and inequality.
Competition is more productive.
A more multi-polar world might not be all bad...and it looks increasingly inevitable.
The multipolar world can be an opportunity to destroy many of the economic and even cultural bubbles that have appeared in the world these days due to the monetary system and the power of America.