North Korea's conspicuous economic failure must be explained in terms of the particularities of "socialism with Korean characteristics"

The economics of state failure in North Korea

Nicholas Eberstadt

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever-in the sense of being more distant from evolving international security norms than ever before.

The particulars of DPRK "extreme" security policies and practices are well known. 

The American Entreprise Institute