I would like to introduce you to Mr. X, a successful North Korean businessman. Of course, the vast majority of newspaper readers worldwide assume that in an allegedly “Stalinist country” (like North Korea), businessmen are not supposed to exist. But they do exist, and prosper – largely because North Korea is not a Stalinist country any more.

Mr. X runs a coal mining company. It is a medium-sized company producing coal for the domestic and export market. For all practical purposes he is the owner of this profitable enterprise. Frankly speaking, I do not know how much money he actually takes home every month, but I would suspect that it is measured in many thousands (of U.S. dollars). Since we are talking about the money that Mr. X takes home for his individual consumption, this makes him seriously rich by North Korean standards.