Result

While Friedrich von Hayek wisely deduced that communism would inevitably lead to dictatorship, the reverse is obviously not true.

For example, look at Philippines at the time of Ferdinand Marcos, or Taiwan under the reign of Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石) and his son.

The real question is, therefore, although we agree communism in itself would lead to poverty, and the process is aggravated with dictatorship, would dictatorship per se - without a communism system - always result in the collapse of economy?

I don't know. But, it does not seem to be the case - just consider what Rhee Syngman (李承晚) achieved south to the 38th parallel.

PS. As a scenario more close to North Korea nowadays, I should actually cite the Shu (蜀) Kingdom with Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) as the prime minister - but that would probably hurt the feeling of many of my audience.