I dunno about that. Just a quick scan around the region: Singapore, where it’s hosted is one of the wealthiest and healthiest places on Earth, but they’ve had the same ruling party since independence. China itself is still ruled by the Communist Party with an iron fist, but there are hundreds of millions have moved from poverty to the middle class, with millions more becoming rich. East Asia in general seems to have a knack for marrying relatively free and highly-functioning economies with relatively authoritarian governments.
None of those examples are as repressive as N. Korea and none of them have a monstrous cult of personality above all else (even money).