Asia Times By
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping were pointedly slow to congratulate Joe Biden on his election victory. Their unhappiness with the outcome was easy to understand since Putin and Xi clearly profited from Trump’s chaotic dismantling of American authority and power.
But probably no leader was more saddened by Trump’s departure than Kim Jong Un. As of late December, the North Korean ruler had yet to tell his people about the imminent departure of Donald Trump. Why?
The North Korean economy will shrink by 10% this year, on top of a similar drop since 2017, according to leading South Korean expert Kim Byung-yeon. The command economy barely functions, a long-term problem compounded by the pandemic, which forced the near total closure of the border with China, along with natural disasters….
