Yes, in a rundown communist state. What could have followed , would be a Kim leader steering the country in the North Korean direction — which I’d call fascist.

Luckily there was Gorbachev and in the people enough decency and civilisation left, so the system just folded

Lol Gorbachev was actually the fascist who worked with with Nazis. He was a revisionist who helped destroy the USSR. There is interesting new evidence that was released once the USSR fell apart indicating that Trotsky was infact guilty and the Moscow trials were a farce. Check out Grover Furrs work on this and stop regurgitating fake pop history and think for yourself. The 20th century was the most secretive centuries ever and as long as documents remain classified and in state archives it’s difficult to say what actually happened. Here is a link to a talk Furr gave. I also find it kind of funny that if you look at the most insane and fascist imperialists in the Trump regime Stephen Miller Marco Rubio they were all trained by Trots.

https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=U6rjNqjSeKM

North Korea is not fascist and for the longest time it was South Korea was an actual fascist state. The fact that North Korea is run down has to do with the fact that they lost ALL trading partners apart from China which was still a poor country in the 1990s. Sadly North Korea has to be a highly militarised closed state because if they demilitarised you bet your ass US and SK tanks would be crossing that border tomorrow so that US tanks can sit on the border of Manchuria. Then again I don’t really expect smug imperialists on hacker news to take a genuine interest in North Korea actual existing socialism and what trying to create a different kind of economy in a world where every attempt to do so has been met with insane actual fascist violence and sabotage entails. Look at Venezuela or Cuba if you want an example of the price you have to pay if you actually try to break away from imperialism and capitalism.