Sanctions are survivable, just not such a great economy.

When President Obama began the sanctions on Russia, the leadership pulled up it's welcome map and became an isolationist power. That trend started before the sanctions actually. But, Russia is an example of a major power that can survive sanctions.

Russia's nationalism has created a country, with local trading partners, that can produce goods in isolation of the rest of the world. The isolationism of Russia can possibly bring about a sustainable economy as the Russian Ruble has been falling against the USA dollar for the past ten years. (July 2008 value 0.04306 American dollar and October 2017 value 0.01718). If the Russian people trade internally it brings about a dual reality, no different than China's dual currency system. Such isolationism creates an economy, but, not a vibrant economy with growth to attract investment. 

Can North Korea have a sustainable economy under sanctions? Sure. But, will it satisfy the people? If the North Korean people believe their suffering is to insure their survival against the "Great Satan" of the USA, they will appreciate the economy they have. The bombast of Trump fuels Un's economic strategy.

The picture below shows an Un that is a happy and jovial man. If he can throw a celebrity basketball game to the delight of the North Korean people; all the better. Un is feeling no pain these days, it is rolling his way and the USA has lost two warships to freighters over this mess.

October 10, 2017
By Karishma Vaswani

...Sanctions v Survival (click here) 

In his speech, Kim Jong-un also said that North Korea's economy is doing well, despite the sanctions put in place by the West.

That may be wishful thinking, given the fact that the sanctions are being enforced relatively stringently.

And that's affecting the economy.

Although it's hard to get reliable figures on North Korea's economy, some data has shown that gasoline prices have been volatile, and the cost of basic goods have reportedly been rising. That will hurt North Korean households.

"North Korean households are richer than they were before," Byung-Yeon Kim, author of the book Unveiling the North Korean Economy tells me from Seoul.

"Their consumption level has increased since the 1990s. A reduction in consumption levels for both the elites and the households will make them unhappy - and that will create a divide between Kim Jong-un and his people. That's dangerous for his political security."
So when sanctions target foreign trade it does start to bite. And that goes goes back to the central question of Kim Jong-un's political survival....

Trump loves to mimic "W." Get ready for the next "Axis of Evil" speech. Un should be across the border when Trump visits and at least wave hello. Maybe they could engage in a shouting match.

October 10, 2017

Seoul (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump (click here) may travel to the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea when he visits South Korea next month, the South’s Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday, citing a defense source.

The White House sent an advance team of working-level officials in late September to check candidate sites for Trump’s “special activity” in South Korea, the source was quoted as saying.

Trump was expected to send a significant message to North Korea, either verbally or “kinetically”, during his first trip to the peninsula as U.S. commander-in-chief, the source said.

The truce village of Panmunjom and the observation post, both inside the DMZ, were among locations Trump was considering visiting, the source said.

Yonhap did not elaborate and the White House did not comment....