But then, North Korea is full of surprises for foreign observers.įull disclosure: I am one of those who seriously underestimated North Korea’s resilience in the 1990s. Pyongyang today appears to be perilously close to achieving its aim-much closer now, indeed, than complacent Western intelligence assessments had presumed would be possible by this juncture. That is, of course, the express and stated objective of the program. Even so, the economic comeback on Kim Jong Un’s watch has been sufficiently strong to permit a dramatic ramp-up in the tempo of his nation’s race to amass a credible nuclear arsenal and develop functional intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S. Recent estimates suggest that its annual merchandise exports do not reach even 1 percent of the level generated by its nemesis, South Korea. Just to be clear, that economy remains pitiably decrepit, horribly distorted, and desperately dependent on outside support. O ne of the more improbable geostrategic surprises of recent years has been the revival of the North Korean economy under the direction of Kim Jong Un.
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