N Korea only has to look to China to find an example of a successful Communist country (not that I'm Communist). But they aren't. Even with limited resources, you would think that the DPRK (a misnomer if I ever saw one) would follow China's lead.
I have a feeling that the Communist in China won't be around in 50 or 100 years. It may work well at guiding a people out of the wilderness with the authoritarianism but once they are out it isn't going to work well for them.
Ultimately you need good leadership regardless of political ideology. China was lucky. They had one man, Deng Xiaoping. He was not an idealogue. He adopted Communism because he saw it as an avenue in which China could shake off the chains of European colonialism and restore China's past glory. This was not uncommon amongst many of his generation. But he was above all a Chinese patriot. He was not concerned about how it was achieved only that China could become powerful once again. A very well known phrase from him," I don't care if it's a black cat or a white cat, If it catches mice, it's a good cat."That's why when he saw that socialism did not work under Mao and Western economies prospered rapidly, he changed course. If Mao was the founder of the modern day Chinese nation, then Deng was it's architect. This man single-handedly revived China's fortunes by adopting broad free market principles. On the other hand, North Korea have no such man. Kim is only interested in playing basketball with Denis Rodman and occasionally firing a few missiles. But what the hell, America has Obama.