North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s call for the country to “exponentially increase” production of nuclear weapons at the recent end-of-year party plenum displayed once again the huge emphasis the country places on the military. And as it turns out, something like a military-industrial complex may be partly to blame.

The DPRK has a vast armed forces that numbers over 1 million active duty soldiers and several times that number in reserves. Some 15% of North Korea’s GDP is spent on the military, according to the U.S. State Department (other estimates are higher), and actual spending