North Korea, a topic of controversy in modern day history, but one that needs proper investigation into why and how they are staying afloat. North Korea is isolated from most of the world’s trade, due to negative relations with the United States, NATO and the United Nations. These international powers have influence over many many countries today, thanks mainly in part to the 20th century. Japan’s conquest of Korea in 1910 lasted until their defeat in World War II. The influence of other states has impacted the Korean peninsula for over a century.
Japan’s defeat in 1945 made Korea “free” once more. The United States and the USSR decided to split the Korean peninsula into two sides, the USSR controlled north and the USA controlled south. The USA gave control of the south to Syngman Rhee and the USSR gave control of the north to Kim il-Sung. The two sides declared they were the representative leader of the Korean peninsula and its people in 1948. 
On June 25th, 1950 the Korean War had began. Kim il-Sung viewed diplomacy as no longer an option, and decided to unite Korea through conquest and battle. The ensuing years were traumatic for the Korean people, their lives broken even further through the razing of Pyongyang and blazing napalm runs. June 27th, 1953 the war was finally over.
After the war, Kim il-Sung remodeled the country after an ideology called “Juche” - promoting Korean autonomy or self-reliance. The state owned all of the property, land, organizations and products. This also brought along a system called songun (military first policy), still in use today. People in North Korea were sorted into social classes, selected by perceived loyalty to socialism and the regime. This songbun system filtered people out from certain schools, occupations and where one may live. During these early days, the regime had pushed one-quarter of the population in Pyongyang to outer provinces, due to their perceived devotion to the state’s ideology.
The Kim il-Sung regime relied heavily on its USSR allies for trade and aid, so the declining economy of the USSR from 70s until its collapse gave rise to waves of poverty and hunger. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, North Korea found itself with no allies to turn to and so its economy crashed and a famine arose. On July 8th, 1994 Kim il-Sung died and his son Kim Jong-il took over as the leader. Illegal markets sprang up in the midst of this economic collapse and famine, to help feed the people. These markets created a bottom-up process of marketization. People found independent paths to wealth through defying the regime and pursuing the markets.
In the early 2000s these survival markets grew into a better established system, ranging from broader types of goods and services. South Korea, surprisingly declared a policy called the “Sunshine Policy” which gave aid to North Korea indefinitely, and opened up economic trade between the two countries. The Kaesong Industrial Complex, north of the DMV allows South Korean companies to hire over 50,000 North Koreans for work. China has also become a big part of North Korea’s economic trade partners and one of its strongest allies. In the late 2000s, Kim Jong-il’s regime tried to reform the economy, by wiping out private wealth -- a factor into why the people are becoming distrusting of the regime. This turbulence grew big enough to be seen in communities angry with the regime, causing the regime to realize they need the markets.
