The North Korean leader’s financial and diplomatic leverage rests on the brutal exploitation of his own people, from coal miners to diplomats, at home and abroad. North Korea celebrated the 78th anniversary of its founding with a parade last week in Pyongyang, the capital. The country is now in one of the strongest positions it has ever been in, financially and diplomatically. Sept. 17, 2026, 12:01 a.m. ET His nation is now a de facto nuclear power.

Its economy is growing at the fastest pace in years. He has been courted by the leaders of China, Russia and the United States. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, has emerged as an unlikely winner of the post-pandemic era.

And his newfound strength rests on the systematic exploitation of his own people, which is actively facilitated by Moscow and Beijing. By supplying troops and ammunition for Russia’s war in Ukraine, Mr. Kim is estimated to be reaping billions of dollars. Russia is repaying Pyongyang in advanced military technology and critical commodities like flour, pork and oil — goods his regime can then resell at home for profit.

But the human cost is staggering, for North Koreans at home and abroad. Thousands of North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded on faraway battlefields. Thousands more North Koreans toil behind the front lines, working in military drone factories, repairing war-damaged cities and building apartments across Russia to meet revenue quotas set by Mr. Kim’s government.

With Moscow looking the other way to evade sanctions, many enter Russia on student visas but never see a classroom — instead sleeping in shipping containers and enduring 14-hour shifts with hardly any days off. Closer to home, China is openly importing North Korean coal in violation of United Nations sanctions, satellite imagery indicates. Defectors say the commodity is mined by workers trapped in forced labor in central and northern North Korea.

Even North Korea’s biggest official export — hair products like wigs and false eyelashes, which are not subject to U.N. penalties — has brutal origins. Much of that merchandise is produced in labor camps, where inmates are forced to meet daily quotas and, survivors say, risk starvation if they fail. The payoff for Pyongyang was $188 million in sales to China in 2024 alone, according to Chinese customs data.

North Korea’s economy has grown more than 3 percent in each of the past three years, according to South Korea’s central bank, a drastic reversal from its pandemic-era contraction.