This study examines the sources of legitimacy for the North Korean regime in an effort to explain what role, if any, economic performance has played in keeping the Kim family in power. It provides a historical look at the development of the North Korean regime from the beginning under Kim Il-sung to the current generation of rule under Kim Jong-un. The core of the author's argument is broken into two major time periods, with the economic downturn of the early 1990s serving as the dividing point. Furthermore, comparisons with South Korea under Park Chung-hee and reformist China under Deng Xiaoping are offered as counter-examples of authoritarian regimes that placed a priority on economic growth.