The World’s Most Surprising Economic Success Story Is…North Korea

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https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/north-korea-economy-success-e80f7062?mod=e2fb​

The World’s Most Surprising Economic Success Story Is…North Korea​

Arms sales to Russia and goods from China provide boost, despite sanctions; ‘the regime is wealthier than ever’​

The Hwasong district of Pyongyang. Rowan Beard
By

Dasl Yoon and Timothy W. Martin

Updated June 7, 2026 11:26 pm ET

Its economy is flourishing in ways not seen in years, aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia, supplies and financing from China, and the ability to flout international sanctions to import more energy, components and materials. Chinese leader Xi Jinping traveled to North Korea this week for his first foreign trip of the year.

The Kim regime slammed its borders shut during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has since reopened to only a select few outsiders, including Russian and Western travelers and diplomats.

Those visitors describe a North Korea unrecognizable from the past, especially its capital, Pyongyang, where Kim and the country’s elite live.

Restaurants there serve up brick-oven pizza and chicken wings. Diners can pay through a mobile QR-code system. Chinese electric vehicles whiz through the streets. Pyongyang has new pet stores, an internet-gaming cafe and car dealerships selling BMWs.

Kim has initiated a nationwide construction boom. Last year, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang—more than either Los Angeles or Chicago.

During the twice-a-decade Workers’ Party congress in February, the 42-year-old dictator championed the economic turnaround, saying in a speech it had come about despite the “barbaric blockade” of U.S.-led economic sanctions.
“Everything has fundamentally changed,” Kim said.