Over the last few years after Kim Jong Un came to power, especially in the initial period, the expectations had been high that North Korean authorities, while keeping and even enhancing a rigid political system, may embark on the course of “economic experiments”.

That would have meant finally admitting the increasingly non-command character of the economic order, which had emerged since the 1990s. 70 percent of household income after all, is said to be derived from market activities.

However, at the 7th Party Congress, decades-old rhetoric dominated the speeches and no new Deng Xiao-Ping-style “brilliant guiding ideas” were presented as