North Korea enjoys rare ‘dash for flash’

{"text":[[{"start":6.3,"text":"When Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in June 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had little to show off to the Chinese president. Apart from a few showcase streets in the capital, his country’s economy was in a poor state and about to be made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic."}],[{"start":24.55,"text":"Xi returned to a very different scene this year. Along the route from the airport stood entire new districts of brightly coloured apartment towers and numerous shops displaying the conspicuous consumption now possible for North Korea’s elite. "}],[{"start":39.5,"text":"The Daesong department store openly stocks luxury goods such as Omega watches and Chanel cosmetics, recent visitors say, brought into the country via China by sanctions-evading parallel importers. Analysts say favoured cadres have long been able to obtain such items, but their retail sale has become noticeably more visible in the past two years."}],[{"start":59.8,"text":"Ryugyong Golden Plaza even hosts an “Ikea” — albeit an unofficial one that sells the Swedish home retailer’s products without its approval — and shops offering $500 smartphones that can be used to hail taxis via an app or pay for goods using QR codes."}],[{"start":78.5,"text":"North Korea, and its capital in particular, is booming, according to analysts. "}],[{"start":83.6,"text":"“Pyongyang has become visibly more affluent and consumer-oriented,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee of the Stimson Center. “This is reflected in the proliferation of high-rise buildings, cars, illuminated streets and cultural and recreational facilities, as well as generally greater activity in public spaces.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":102.89999999999999,"text":"North Korea is one of the world’s most tightly controlled and isolated nations and has not published economic statistics regularly since 1965, making it highly difficult to gauge its economic performance."}],[{"start":115.49999999999999,"text":"But South Korea’s central bank estimates that its northern neighbour’s real GDP grew 3.5 per cent in 2025, its third year of expansion of more than 3 per cent. That is faster than growth in South Korea in recent years and marks a sharp contrast with low or sharply negative growth in the North over more than half a decade."}],[{"start":136.35,"text":"Kim’s regime also appears stronger than ever, boasting a growing range of nuclear and conventional weapons and basking in Kim’s apparently good relations with Xi and his strong ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin."}],[{"start":150.65,"text":"US President Donald Trump has also renewed efforts this week to reopen diplomacy with Pyongyang, scaling back military drills with Seoul in an apparent effort to secure a meeting with Kim. The two met three times during Trump’s first term."}],[{"start":165.20000000000002,"text":"The regime dismissed those overtures, with Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister, saying the US would not “get the answer they desire”, though she added her brother and Trump maintained “excellent” personal relations."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":178.05,"text":"Analysts cautioned that North Korea’s economic resurgence fell short of a genuine transformation."}],[{"start":183.75,"text":"Instead, they said, growth was mostly being driven by participation in Russia’s war in Ukraine. "}],[{"start":189.65,"text":"South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy has estimated that from August 2023 to December 2025, North Korea earned somewhere between $7.7bn and $14.4bn worth of money and goods in exchange for troop deployment and military exports to Russia. The Bank of Korea estimates the North’s nominal gross national income to have been worth just $34bn in 2025."}],[{"start":215.85,"text":"“These troop deployments and exports have served as a key mechanism for overcoming the economic crisis,” the INSS said in a report in March."}],[{"start":225.4,"text":"Peter Ward of the Sejong Institute in Seoul said North Korea was in the throes of a “Russian sugar high” and a “dash for flash — and shovel-ready, exciting-looking projects that will catch the eye of the leader, but aren’t necessarily sustainable”."}],[{"start":239.75,"text":"Beyond Pyongyang’s new apartment towers for politically favoured families, a wave of housing construction is taking place in provincial towns. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":247.95,"text":"North Korea’s trade has also been recovering from a pandemic slump, with imports of $2.66bn last year, up 14 per cent year on year, and exports worth $470mn, up 30 per cent, according to the BoK. "}],[{"start":262.75,"text":"Between January and May, exports to China surged 68 per cent year on year to $287mn, according to the Stimson Center’s North Korea Briefing, with nearly two-thirds of that growth attributable to shipments of tungsten, a metal crucial for some manufacturing and defence. Tungsten prices have jumped recently and the metal was the largest export to China during the period, narrowly beating the North’s usual top seller, wigs."}],[{"start":289.85,"text":"North Korea’s “emergence as a modern-day pirate state on the back of its lucrative cryptocurrency theft operations” has also helped, said Shreyas Reddy of Korea Risk Group. "}],[{"start":299.95000000000005,"text":"Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has estimated that hackers linked to Kim’s regime stole $643mn in the first half of 2026 alone, including $577mn from two attacks in April. "}],[{"start":314.30000000000007,"text":"Kim’s regime has said it is making a success of his most ambitious initiative, the “20x10” regional development policy. Launched in 2024, the scheme aims to build new factories — focused on light industries such as food processing, textiles and household products — and public infrastructure in 20 counties each year over a 10-year period."}],[{"start":336.00000000000006,"text":"The Stimson Center’s Lee said: “Their impact will depend on whether these factories can obtain raw materials, energy, skilled workers and transportation. Without more fundamental changes in North Korea’s economic system, initiatives of this kind can only go so far.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":353.50000000000006,"text":"Far from allowing more private enterprise, however, Kim appears to be tightening the government’s grip on the economy even further."}],[{"start":361.20000000000005,"text":"Since the pandemic, he has reasserted control over the jangmadang informal markets that emerged during a famine in the 1990s. Officials have expanded inspections, attempted to curb private trading and promoted greater reliance on state-run distribution."}],[{"start":376.40000000000003,"text":"Between 1964 and 1973, South Korea’s decision to send troops and give other support to the US war in Vietnam earned Seoul a foreign currency windfall that it used to help finance rapid industrial development. "}],[{"start":389.25000000000006,"text":"But analysts are sceptical that Kim will make as productive use of the Russian bounty. “Knowing the North Koreans, they probably haven’t fixed the roof while the sun is shining,” Ward said."}],[{"start":399.05000000000007,"text":"Data visualisation by Haohsiang Ko in Hong Kong"}],[{"start":408.70000000000005,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787364775_6698.mp3"}