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The Diplomat ·Behind the news

North Korea Needs China and Russia – but Doesn’t Want Its People Admiring Them

by Lee Sang-yong

Published 2026-07-31 01:09:00+09:00

If North Korea needs its allies to survive, why does it punish its people for admiring them?

0:00 / 12:11 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

North Korean officials are happy to import Chinese goods and Russian military hardware, but they will punish any citizen caught admiring how people in those countries live. Published on 31 July 2026, this piece from The Diplomat captures a strange double standard operating inside a closed society. The government is not actually afraid of foreign information slipping across the border. It is afraid of comparison. If ordinary people learn that citizens in allied nations can run businesses and earn better wages, they might start asking why they cannot do the same.

Show notes

An examination of North Korea's campaign to stop its citizens from admiring China and Russia, even as the government deepens its reliance on both countries. Drawing on reports of internal crackdowns and party orders, it shows how Pyongyang fears practical comparisons of living standards more than foreign propaganda. The author concludes with a strategy for outside information efforts that focuses on the daily lives of workers in allied nations rather than democratic ideals.

Read on The Diplomat →