I understand what you’re saying. To be fair, my anchor point is oppressive socialist regimes writ large circa 1944-1990. Kim Il Sung predated Enver Hoxha in terms of models and tactics. Hoxha’s governance style changed over about a decade or two to distance Albania from Yugoslavia and the USSR and emulate North Korea.

By no means do I think it’s an “Asian” thing. Honestly, that’s a silly premise when I’m talking about a single country of 26 million out of 4.7 billion people. NK might barely round up to 1% of the population of Asia, so how is that exactly painting the whole continent? But between Hoxha-era Albania and North Korea, North Korea still exists in largely the same state. So it’s easier to reference as a standard right now.