We're still talking about the elite of a failed state, they aren't global elite. A middle class South Korean certainly has a more elite lifestyle.

>How do the 1 percent tolerate outages?

Depends on the area you live, more elite== less power cuts. Some 'priority' areas like the area around juche tower and Joong-gu district get no power cuts, some have private inverters.

that's the way it is in developing countries. People have tremendous individual wealth but can't buy clean air, better transportation, electriicity or a rich cultural environment (e. g. public goods).

For some it's a crash pad if they're in the area with a real home elsewhere. Hard to notice outages if you only experience one a year vs. being a full time resident.