It's so bad for North Korea that they "sell" large groups of laborers to friendly countries to work in remote areas for the sole purpose of bringing exportable cash back to the country. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwnw3w/north-korean-labor...
It's so bad for North Korea that for many years they operated a factory town on the border with their active enemy South Korea that used low payed North Korean workers to make goods to sell back to South Korea, under South Korean management for the sole purpose of bringing cash into the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region
The list goes on.
The GDP of North Korea is estimated to be about $30 billion with the per capita income being around $1,000 per person. North Korea is deeply cash strapped, has few trading partners, and produces very little that anybody would want anyways. It doesn't take much money to move the needle. To not be aware of this is to not posses even remotely moderate critical faculties.