in the Blowback episode about Korea in the post-armistice era, they mention how by the 1970s, the DPRK had a higher quality of life for its people than almost all South Koreans, which was still under capitalist military dictatorship and had outrageous sweatshop conditions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Peace_Market) as well as ongoing torture/death camps for organizers of work stoppages/slowdowns to improve conditions. the DPRK was very popular with its population while the southern puppet government was continually rocked by crisis. the DPRK was actually sending food aid to the South at this time.
the DPRK had improving economic relations within and outside of the socialist bloc, but after the soviet project collapsed, the US decided (in the same way they did with Cuba) to put the screws to the DPRK with brutal sanctions happening alongside the broader asian market crisis. then the DPRK became part of Bush's politically expedient Axis of Evil.
blowback makes a strong case for how the conditions of the Korean peninsula and relations between the north and south is generally a product of whatever insane domestic political project is going on in washington d.c. like the Korean War itself coinciding with the second red scare.
in the Blowback episode about Korea in the post-armistice era, they mention how by the 1970s, the DPRK had a higher quality of life for its people than almost all South Koreans, which was still under capitalist military dictatorship and had outrageous sweatshop conditions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Peace_Market) as well as ongoing torture/death camps for organizers of work stoppages/slowdowns to improve conditions. the DPRK was very popular with its population while the southern puppet government was continually rocked by crisis. the DPRK was actually sending food aid to the South at this time.
the DPRK had improving economic relations within and outside of the socialist bloc, but after the soviet project collapsed, the US decided (in the same way they did with Cuba) to put the screws to the DPRK with brutal sanctions happening alongside the broader asian market crisis. then the DPRK became part of Bush's politically expedient Axis of Evil.
blowback makes a strong case for how the conditions of the Korean peninsula and relations between the north and south is generally a product of whatever insane domestic political project is going on in washington d.c. like the Korean War itself coinciding with the second red scare.