The Ridiculous History of North Korea — In 3 Minutes

🚀 A Strange Economic Plan in a Communist World 🚀

North Korea’s economic plan was as strange as a cat wearing sunglasses in winter.
It all began with the Soviet-American partition of the Korean Peninsula, which was like two roommates dividing a pizza but not agreeing on the toppings.
The US intervened against the North, dropping bombs like confetti at a bad party, killing almost a million people and demolishing 80% of North Korea’s buildings — talk about a rough night!

🌍 North Korea’s Identity Crisis 🌍

The Workers Party of Korea had a 1950s split personality crisis: pro-Soviet, pro-Chinese, and pro-Kim factions playing musical chairs.
Kim Il Sung played the decisive game and purged the two foreign factions.
Determined to be independent from the Communist giants next door, Kim invented Juche, or “self-reliance,” which was basically North Korea’s way of saying, “We’ll make everything ourselves, even if we’re not good at it.”
This eventually led to the absurd situation where North Korea, despite being an industrialized country, experienced a famine — because growing food turned out to be a tad challenging.

📈 North Korea: Rise and Stagnation 📈

From the ’50s to the ’70s, North Korea experienced a growth spurt and was seen as the cool kid on the block.
By the ’80s, they hit a plateau due to terrible farmland, an obsession with self-reliance, and a Central Planner team that seemed allergic to investing in information technologies.
Inspired by Mao, Kim built a propaganda machine so impressive that even he started believing he was a genius.
To spice things up, North Korea poured a quarter of its GDP into a massive military, hoping for a Soviet-NATO showdown.
Instead, the Soviet Union crumbled like a stale cookie, and North Korea lost its main trading partner.
Kim Jong Il faced the unenviable task of leading at a terrible time and decided to go all-in on the “crazy and mystical” propaganda machine.
With the South’s economy revving up, he built a nuclear program that earned North Korea more sanctions than a teenager grounded for life.

💀 Passing the Crazy Torch: Kim Jong Un 💀

When Kim Jong Il passed the torch to his son, Kim Jong Un, it was like passing the baton in a relay race from one loony bin to another.
The propaganda machine went into overdrive yet again.
Kim Jong Un had zero accomplishments but the right last name, making his tenure as leader a bit like a sequel to a great movie no one asked for.

💡 The Bizarre Logic of North Korea 💡

The North Korean system is so absurd that nobody inside it has a reason to let it fall.
Top officials could potentially become rich plundering oligarchs, but there’s a catch: if the country crumbled, they’d be put on trial by the South, which means inevitable reunification.
So, as weird as it sounds, the whole North Korean setup benefits everyone who could potentially end it. It’s like a twisted game of political chess with no winners and lots of bizarre moves.

Information Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/a304bf/comment/eb35jma/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3