Then again, one wonders why the North Korean people don’t rise up against the thugs running the place. Is it because the Kim’s successfully maintained the loyalty of the military and secret police, and the people are too afraid to rock the boat? Also, are there still state stores?
It isn’t easy to rise up in a police state. Look at the Soviet Union or East Germany. People understood for years that they were miserable compared to the West. But it took a long time for them to collectively decide that they’d had enough. The author thinks that North Korea will gradually liberalize but history doesn’t support that happening. When the regime falls it will do so spectaculary.