How China Keeps North Korea’s Economy Alive: The World's Most Awkward Economic Life Support Machine
There are toxic relationships, there are codependent relationships, and then there’s the relationship between China and North Korea. If international diplomacy were a reality TV show, these two countries would be the couple everyone keeps asking about. “Why are they still together?” “Do they even like each other?” “Is somebody secretly paying all the bills?” Spoiler alert: yes. China keeps North Korea’s economy alive in much the same way a parent keeps a thirty-five-year-old son alive after he has spent decades refusing to get a job, insulting the neighbors, and launching homemade fireworks at passing aircraft. The arrangement isn't exactly built on affection. It's built on necessity. And like most relationships based on necessity, everyone involved is mildly annoyed all the time. Yet here we are. Decades after the Cold War ended, North Korea continues to survive despite sanctions, isolation, chronic shortages, recurring famines, technological backwardness, and an ec...
