The North Korean leadership has in recent weeks found itself in an extremely uncomfortable, and potentially risky, situation. In the aftermath of the failed Hanoi summit, prospects for future negotiations with the United States do not look good.

Even if negotiations resume, it seems that the United States is unlikely to give North Korea the type of concessions Kim Jong Un and his advisors expect.

And while international sanctions have failed to produce any kind of crisis inside North Korea so far, they still make a resumption of the kind of economic growth which the country saw in the first