North Korea would likely not be a worse place than China or the US if their economy wasn’t shit. And a lot of that is literally just The Great US Empire (and its vassals) restricting global trade by gunboat politics since the war. Cuba has the same problem: Immense evolutionary pressure to harden their government against US-caused regime change followed by total exploitation combined with reduced trade options.
North Korea would likely not be a worse place than China or the US if their economy wasn’t shit. And a lot of that is literally just The Great US Empire (and its vassals) restricting global trade by gunboat politics since the war. Cuba has the same problem: Immense evolutionary pressure to harden their government against US-caused regime change followed by total exploitation combined with reduced trade options.