As leaders in the United States force the land of the free leftward, leaders in Pyongyang are being forced to give up a large aspect of their Communist experiment. As the Washington Post says, North Korea is bowing to reality: Communism doesn’t work.

SEOUL — Bowing to reality, the North Korean government has lifted all restrictions on private markets — a last-resort option for a leadership desperate to prevent its people from starving.

In recent weeks, according to North Korea observers and defector groups with sources in the country, Kim Jong Il’s government admitted its inability to solve the current food shortage and encouraged its people to rely on private markets for the purchase of goods. Though the policy reversal will not alter daily patterns — North Koreans have depended on such markets for more than 15 years — the latest order from Pyongyang abandons a key pillar of a central, planned economy.

Somewhere, Milton Friedman is smiling. And this recognition from the left-leaning Washington Post will make a tear roll down his cheek:

With November’s currency revaluation, Kim wiped out his citizens’ personal savings and struck a blow against the private food distribution system sustaining his country. The latest policy switch, though, stands as an acknowledgment that the currency move was a failure and that only capitalist-style trading can prevent widespread famine.

The North Korean government held onto its disastrous economic experiment as long as humanely possible, not wanting to concede that evil capitalism is more humane than wonderful Communism. In the end the regime evidently believed it couldn’t withstand another 90s famine (it killed millions).

As of May 26, the government no longer forces markets to close at 6 or 7 p.m., has dropped the rule restricting customers to women older than 40 and has lifted a ban on certain goods being sold. An official in the city of Pyungsung informed the Good Friends humanitarian group that the living standard had “drastically decreased since the currency exchange, and the government cannot provide distribution so they have to bring the market back up.” …

Compared with the peak of the food crisis, in the mid and late ’90s, “the actual amount of food — less is available now,” said Kim Heung-gwang, a North Korean defector and president of a group called North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity. “But back then, the food circulation industry wasn’t as built up. Even though the absolute amount of food is less now than it was 15 years ago, I think the starvation problem will be less significant.”

Allahpundit explains the problem with last year’s currency exchange. Long story short, the move cost citizens money; a lot of money.

In the end, the only hope Kim Jong-il had to keep regime alive was — ironically — moving away from socialism and towards the free market. Capitalism was the only hope to keep the people — and his government — alive.