North Korea is again in bad shape with no recourse but to bend the knee to Xi.
I think I mentioned this before, but it bears mentioning again:
North Korea is releasing emergency military rice reserves as its food shortage worsens, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, with a heat wave and drought reducing the country's supply.
The country's moribund economy is continuously being battered by the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, and while mass starvation and social chaos have not been reported, observers expect further deterioration of North Korea's food situation until the autumn harvest.
Huh:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has apparently agreed to obey China from now on. China has openly criticized Kim for not adopting economic and political policies that have worked in China. Kim had earlier refused because allowing a more open and free economy as well as a more rational spending policy would mean the end of the North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile program and a weakening of the police state control the Kim family has installed over the last 70 years.
China has been pushing this for some time because it thinks it has the solution to avoiding the USSR and Eastern Europe collapse problem.
Has China tamed their little pet psycho regime?
Or will North Korea pretend to comply until they think their immediate crisis passes? And end up fearing, resenting, and hating China?
While possessing some nukes. Even if North Korea can't perfect long-range missiles, North Korea's weapons when they have them will be able to reach China as easily as they can reach South Korea or Japan.
A new army of government informants no doubt will look for dangerous pro-Chinese elites. But really, how bad is it for Kim Jong Un to take this risk of letting Chinese influence in?
