The World’s Most Surprising Economic Success Story Is…North Korea

The Wall Street Journal ^ | June 7, 2026 | Timothy W. Martin

[Trump20162020]

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.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: northkorea

[ClearCase_guy]

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.

I don't see wealth creation taking place. I suppose arms sales might possibly count as wealth creation, but I would suggest mining, agriculture, or industrial production of consumer goods might be a better path. The rest of this list is just parasitic.

[Secret Agent Man]

Exsentially forced slave labor, no real working consumer economy...

Theres no real way but up for them.

[DouglasKC]

Sure.

[Retain Mike]

"It has since reopened to only a select few outsiders"

Certainly, that person has no worthwhile credentials. No reasonable person would base an assessment on hearing the reports of a few visiting their Potemkin villages.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Stayin' Alive

[dfwgator]

To live in Pyongyang, you have to have approval from the government.

[Leaning Right]

I miss the old days when ‘The Wall Street Journal’ celebrated capitalism.

[montag813]

Trump tried his best. China vetoed it.

[clearcarbon]

"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..,"

[cpdiii]

Please tell the editors of the Wall Street Journal to quit taking what they are taking via smoke, nose or injection.

Take one look and GDP and realize it is a failed nation. If one looks at per capita GDP of North Korea it is not just failed but hopeless.

PS
That is some pretty good S—t those boys at the Journal are using.

[fhayek]

Autocratic countries can experience decent economic growth - for a limited time. Forcing people into productive industries is often at the detriment of other essential industries (see the Soviet Union's progress in the 1920's and 30's. Sure they industrialized, but they gutted their agriculture sector to do so). Autocrats can do this, but the living standards of their citizens takes a back seat. Free markets address the needs of the people. Command economies serve the interests of the ruling elite. Always.

[Bob434]

little rocketman and ilk gorge themselves silly when eating the best of food while the population are allotted bags of rice and often run out- Yeah, real success story

[Fungi]

Timothy W. Martin is the Korea bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in Seoul, overseeing the Journal’s coverage of North and South Korea. A modern day Walter Duranty ?

[VTenigma]

That’s not “economic success”, that’s called being a “client state”.

[Angelino97]

aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia

They're renting out mercenaries.

Kind of like some German principalities rented out Hessians to the British during the Revolution.

[mass55th]

China and Russia have been helping North Korea since the end of WWII. China specifically was instrumental in killing thousands of American soldiers in the Korean War when they sent thousands of Chinese peasants over the border to invade South Korea. Russia provided military equipment, MIG’s, pilots, training and medical help. And then we went and did the same thing in Vietnam. Two back-to-back proxy wars.

[Celtic Conservative]

Nothing you see in communist countries is real. They manage appearances quite well. They have to, because the reality is that communism sucks. I remember passing through East Germany as a teenager while on vacation with my parents. We were on our way to Berlin. The houses along the road all looked very nice. Clean and well painted. But if you looked in the rear view mirror the sides and roof were all dilapidated and falling apart. That’s communism in a single image.

CC

[PTBAA]

Slavery is freedom!

[mythenjoseph]

Greasin’ up the ol’ newbie DSA followers with this one! I can hear it now , “Did ya see the article in the Journal? North Korea is FLOURISHING! We have to get more DSA people in offices! Kill every capitalist pig so that someday here in Amerikastan we too can FLOURISH! Idiocy the movie is not that far away from how a growing percentage of Americans actually process thoughts (intentionally avoided the word think.)