Crippling though it may have been to the North Korean economy and its international standing, the DPRK’s obsession with “Juche” — particularly its defense-related focus — has been uniquely effective at ensuring its armed forces remain well equipped.

Few nations (and none with an economic situation comparable to the DPRK’s) manage to produce quite so many of their armaments indigenously, be it from small arms to armored vehicles, surface ships to submarines, and even a vast array of strategic weaponry.

Yet one branch of its military is served markedly worse by this ideology of autarky than all others,