How does a country like Nort Korea seem to have endless money for its army and develop nuclear weapons despite being one of the most sanctionned country in the world?
In: 1447
Don’t believe everything you read about North Korea, as there are active incentives to portray NK as “not that bad,” or “cartoonishly bad.” North Korea is bad, which makes it difficult to discern fact from fiction.
That said, North Korea counterfeits money, grows crops and mines raw resources. Most of their actual money comes from China and Russia, and that’s also where most of their scientific knowledge comes from. Sanctions from the US and Europe do not have as significant an impact on their economy because their money (mostly) doesn’t come with trade to Western nations.
To answer your question: trade and militarily strategic geography keeps NK from running out of money, but they also don’t have a military budget near the size of most nuclear powers.
So far, North Korea has been ruled under a single dynasty, and its policies have fluctuated based on leader. Kim Il-Sung was a bit of a populist among his people, and there was an attempt, albeit extremely flawed, to provide for the people of NK. When Kim Jong-Il became leader, the state went into its military dictatorship (it was a dictatorship before, but not as brutal). After the passing of Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong-Un took over and consolidated power by executing those who could challenge his power. Jong-Un has begun to make massive humanitarian strides in NK: he’s been pictured with peasantry, something his father would never have done. The politics of NK is immensely fascinating and we only have a small glimmer into it; I thought these would be interesting things to learn.
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