Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, 32, recently celebrated the 68th birthday of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—in reality, a Maoist/Stalinist monarchy of three generations—by a fifth underground nuclear test. This followed his firing of three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
The raising of the nuclear threat to an even more dangerous level resulted in international calls for more economic sanctions, although judging from what was achieved by the ones in place during the past decade, new sanctions will do little to improve world security.
Virtually all of North Korea's trade is with its neighbor China.