>I would say the flaw with North Korea could be better explained with overspending on the military.
>
SNIP

This is a subject - "overspending" by any Communist government - that mystifies me.

It was cited by Mr. Gorbachev as THE primary reason that glastnost/perestroika (sp?) were necessary and why, in the end, USSR lost the cold war. He said that their budget simply couldn't sustain things as they had been.

I ask myself - what "budget" and where do they (Communist governments) get their money?
They don't tax people, so no revenue there. Companies are owned by the state, so no tax/ancillary revenues there.
Seems to me they simply print money to meet their needs.
Now I can see how THAT (printed) money would have NO VALUE outside of a country, but it doesn't compute for me as regards internal 'spending'.
Can't they just "pay" their people to prepare land to grow and process food? Except for some initial seeds, where's the "cost"? Can't they also make factories to produce fertilizer and to produce steel and to manufacture vehicles?

I know well that Communism doesn't work well at all, but in the case of North Korea it seems to be they've even managed to botch that up!