Much has been made of the fact that, like most dictatorships, North Korea in many ways resembles a “mafia state”:  brutally enforced centralized power, grossly distorted distribution of wealth, general disregard for international laws and conventions, informal and arbitrary taxation system, not to mention  its drug and arms trade, currency counterfeiting, and other illicit activities.  However, the true strength of this analogy, and its real value in helping to predict the future of the country, is in analyzing the factors that make social structures like organized crime syndicates and the North Korean state work and, inevitably, fail.

The sustainability of