Andrei Lankov has an article posted over at 3WM that explains why North Korea has seen a small amount of economic growth over the past decade despite the increased sanctions that have been implemented on the country in response to their nuclear weapons program:

That said, there seem to be three explanations for the obvious improvement in North Korea’s economic situation.

First, the last fifteen years have been a period of time when the non-official market economy began to play a major role in the lives of North Koreans. Estimates vary greatly but it seems that the average North Korean buys between 35-80% of food he or she consumes at the market place. The private economy includes semi-legal, private agriculture. There is no doubt that the private sector makes a significant contribution to the actual economy of North Korea and helps it to stay afloat.

The second factor is the partial recovery of the state sector. North Korea’s industrial managers have learnt how to work under different conditions. Thanks to their efforts, their enterprises have at least partially, recovered from the shock which was inflicted by the sudden withdrawal of the Soviet subsidies and disintegration of the entire economic system in the years 1990-95.

The third factor is foreign aid. Even though American and South Korean aid has been scaled back dramatically, the increase in the amount of aid coming from China has made up for these losses.  [3 Wise Monkeys]