North Korea, as probably every reader of NK News knows, is dominated by markets. A “market” is not only something that’s as far from “a state-controlled planned economy” as can be, it is also a place where people trade goods – including smuggled ones – talk more freely and gradually become more independent from Leviathan. This is certainly not good for the North Korean authorities.

Kim Jong Il made numerous attempts to close the markets – and failed completely. This clearly shows that the markets have become a force to be reckoned with in North Korea – even the seemingly all-powerful state apparatus attacked it and suffered a humiliating defeat. In 2010, Kim Jong Il stopped all anti-market policies and propaganda campaigns, accepting that there was now a phenomenon in his country he could not destroy, even if he wanted so. As of today, although Kim Jong Un has tried to suppress the flow of smuggled foreign films, he too has not attempted to make any significant attacks on the markets.