[TigerLikesRooster]

Some people in Pyongyang got rich by running hard-currency running enterprises, and some others made money in local markets and smuggling operations. Apparently they bought cars. Income distribution in N. Korea is further polarized after Kim Jong-un took power, I think. Even inside Pyongyang. The city center(Chang-kwang District) now has new high-rise building complex with glitzy facade, while the rest of Pyongyang is economically depressed. The place is all Chang-kwang and nothing else, it seems.

Amazingly, Western ‘experts’ see it as a sign of ‘economic prosperity,’ a gross distortion of what is happening.

Kim Jong-un is concentrating economic resources into his missiles/nuke development and these selected show-case projects. He is keen to showing outside world that they are becoming nuclear power and economically prospering at the same time, beating sanctions. He is trying to show that his “Byung-jin” policy is working, simultaneously pursuing military and economic development.

[familyop]

Thank you, TLR, and thank you for the good keywords for further reading.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Correction: running hard-currency running[earning] enterprises

[caww]

.....”He is trying to show that his “Byung-jin” policy is working, simultaneously pursuing military and economic development”.....

That is for the people in Pyongyang primarily in order to sustain their loyalty. He knows all too well the world sees it as it really is. He'll do what he has to with those in the city to prevent the from turning on him. He could fake it for a time but not indefinitely.....