, Columnist
Growth Isn't Good News for Kim Jong Un
A Q&A with South Korean economist Byung-Yeon Kim on the spread of capitalism inside North Korea.
The North responded to sanctions with another missile launch.
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Byung-Yeon Kim, a professor at Seoul National University, began interviewing North Korean defectors seven years ago to learn more about their country's economy. One wouldn't have thought there was much to discover: Often described as "Stalinist," the hermetic regime to the north seemed to preside over a crude, centrally planned system, with peasants toiling away for a pittance in collective farms and state-owned factories, dependent on food aid and growing poorer with each passing year.