North Korea: Why Kim Jong Un came in from the cold

For close watchers of the nation of 25m, Mr Kim has followed a three-pronged strategy to cement his grip on power: high-level political repression, grassroots economic liberalisation and the unwavering development of his nation’s nuclear programme.

Surveys of defectors appear to show that his policies are having an impact. They indicate that Mr Kim enjoys broad support among ordinary North Koreans, while analysts now believe he has the nation’s military on a tight leash.

“This is the dictator model to the extreme,” says Andrei Lankov, a noted North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul. “Kim wants to keep people’s stomachs full of food but their hearts full of fear.”