The State of North Korea isn’t likely to be described as a success story, but its interests are beginning to spread out in a way that hasn’t been detected before by analysts that work on trends in the region.
The lack of transparency that marks its international image beyond Asia is a reality and hinders perceiving what’s really going on.
But students of the political edge of affairs have noticed matters are changing on that front too, leading to speculation that shapes a new, emerging narrative.
For example, Kim Jong Un’s daughter is believed to live in Russia as often as she’s not in North Korea, nurturing her learning of rulership by academic work in close quarters.
Such doesn’t mean Russia is a dominant force in a nation so small in scope and ambition that it often focuses on rural matters to the detriment of progress.
But, in theory, it gives us a more detailed picture of a state of affairs that’s developing along lines of close ties and not technically challenging geopolitical affairs, or inclusive of the world’s criticism.