Rodong Sinmun / YONHAP / EPA
Economy grew at the fastest pace in eight years. The country’s economic position is the strongest since Kim came to power nearly 15 years ago — and perhaps higher than at any time during his father’s rule. Russia and China help a lot.
Despite constant international sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and the structural poverty that continues to mark a large part of the country, North Korea is experiencing a moment of economic growth practically unheard of in recent years.
The recovery is highlighted in a recent article by , which explains that the surprising recent success of the most isolated country in the world has been driven, in large part, by arms sales and troop shipments to support Russia in the war in Ukraine, by trade and financing from China and by the regime’s ability to circumvent international restrictions to import energy, technological components and construction materials.
The change is mainly visible in Pyongyangthe capital, reserved for the regime’s elites and a showcase carefully controlled by Kim Jong-un.
Foreign visitors, including tourists, diplomats and authorized guides, describe a city different from the one they knew before the pandemic: now, there are restaurants with wood-fired pizza and chicken wings, payments by QR code, Chinese electric vehicles on the streets, pet shops, online gaming cafes and car dealerships where BMW, services similar to Uber and Bolt are sold.
The regime also launched a large-scale construction wave. Last year alone, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang — more than Los Angeles or Chicago, according to the WSJ.
Victory over the “barbaric blockade”?
During the Workers’ Party congress, held in February, Kim Jong-un reportedly presented economic recovery as a victory over the “barbaric blockade” of US-led sanctions. “Everything has changed,” summarized the North Korean leader.
It is recalled that, in 2017, following Pyongyang’s nuclear advances, the United States and the United Nations reinforced restrictions on trade and financial transactions with that country. Donald Trump — who during his first term met Kim Jong-un three times — once again expressed his availability for a new meeting, maintaining the complete denuclearization of the country as his declared objective.
But the context has changed. Kim has insisted on a “self-reliant” economy and the regime continues to not publish official data, strictly controls information and decides what visitors can see. Outside the capital, the reality remains harsh: almost half of the 26 million inhabitants suffer from malnutrition, according to a United Nations report, and the country’s annual GDP represents less than 1% of that of the United States.
North Korea also continues to be considered one of the most repressive countries in the world, where the distribution of a simple South Korean television series can be punishable by death.
Still, there are external signs that the recovery is not just propaganda, warns the North American newspaper.
Reports from South Korean research centers point to greater naval activity near oil storage facilities, expansion of these structures, fuller parking lots and a significant increase in nighttime luminosity observed by satellite.
According to one of these studies, North Korea shines today at night about three times brighter than it did five years ago.
Russian money
The main driver has been the rapprochement with Russia. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Pyongyang has become one of Moscow’s most useful allies. THE North Korea supplied ammunition and sent more than 15 thousand soldiers to the battlefront, of which around a third would have died or been injured. To the Arms sales earned the regime billions of dollarsaccording to estimates from the Institute for National Security Strategy, a research center based in Seoul and linked to South Korean intelligence services.
Between the summer of 2023 and the end of last year alone, Pyongyang will have received more than 10 billion dollars in military supplies to Russia — an enormous sum for an economy estimated at around 27 billion dollars.
The deployment of troops will have generated more than 500 million dollars, although much of the payments are expected to come in the form of military technology, weapons parts and other sensitive materials.
In 2023, Kim Jong-un made his first trip abroad since the pandemic to meet Vladimir Putin in the Russian Far East. The following year, it was Putin who visited Pyongyang, where the two signed a mutual defense pact and declared a unity against the West.
Weapons experts say new North Korean warships and drones resemble Russian models, and South Korean officials say Moscow has already sent air defense systems to Pyongyang.
Chinese money and the advantage of the Internet
China remains another essential pillar. Monthly trade between the two countries recently reached highest value in eight yearsdespite many sales of Chinese brands to North Korean consumers violating sanctions.
The proliferation of smartphones, apps and digital payments largely depends on Chinese components. Many of the North Korean hackers also operate from China, where they have freer access to the Internet and a lower risk of arrest by foreign authorities. Attacks on cryptocurrency platforms will have generated billions of dollars for the regime.
With Beijing and Moscow defending sanctions relief at the UN, Kim has sought to expand his network of allies. He participated in a Chinese military parade alongside more than two dozen foreign leaders and received in March, in Pyongyang, the President of BelarusAlexander Lukashenko, who signed a friendship treaty with North Korea.
Remarkable growth
According to the South Korean central bank, which uses intelligence data to estimate the numbers, the North Korean economy grew 3.7% in 2024, the fastest pace in eight years. Several South Korean think tanks believe the growth has continued.
Stephan Haggard, a researcher at the University of California at San Diego and an expert on the North Korean economy, considers that The country’s economic position is the strongest since Kim came to power nearly 15 years ago — and perhaps higher than at any time under his father, Kim Jong-il.
In the interior of the country, there are signs of greater consumption. According to a Russian tourism agency, cited by the WSJ, domestic production of cell phones would have reached half a million devices per year. Researchers say smartphones are so widespread today that there are more than 50 brands on the North Korean market.
Foreign tourists report seeing residents filming runners at the Pyongyang International Marathon, using food and medicine delivery apps, and paying for purchases with their cell phones — although, it is worth noting, there is a possibility that these tourists are just there ‘for English to see’.
Remembering the pandemic
During the pandemic, the country’s situation was very different from today. The closure of borders caused a sharp drop in trade with China. There were power outages, coal mines halted production and basic goods such as vegetable oil and sugar disappeared from many stores. Kim even publicly admitted, for the first time, serious flaws in economic policy, acknowledged food shortages and .
But the recent recovery will have allowed the regime to recentralize the economy. Before the pandemic, much of the activity relied on informal markets, goods smuggled from China, and a merchant class known as the bottomenriched outside the direct control of the State. Now, Kim reinforces state-owned stores and pharmacies, demands more state-made products on the shelves and increases surveillance over markets.
A “20×10” initiativeKim’s economic flagship, plans to build factories in 20 cities and counties a year for a decade, with the aim of revitalizing local economies through light industrial units, modern health centers and leisure spaces.
Prosperity continues, however, highly unequal. The new North Korea of app-based taxis, electric cars and digital payments exists mainly in areas controlled and favored by the regime. Outside the “showcase”, an isolated, poor, repressed, malnourished country remains.
