This is part of NK News’ series of opinion and analysis of the first five years of Kim Jong Un’s rule.

When Kim Jong Un took power just over five years ago, North Korea was something of an economic basket case, with stagnant growth, a crippled agricultural sector, and a system of economic planning riddled with corruption and mismanagement. The country's saving grace, it seemed, was its burgeoning private marketplaces, providing goods that the state-approved planned economy simply could not.