North Korea has experimented with attempts at economic reform in the past, such as with the July 1st Measures in 2002 (under Kim Jong-il) and the June 28th Measures in 2013. For those who have been paying attention to North Korea, you may have noticed that in recent years North Korea has been trying to attract foreign investment. The newest measures, the May 30th Measures (from 2014), are the most comprehensive economic reform measures North Korea has ever had, and will begin to be implemented from this year with. With the end of the three-year mourning period for Kim Jong-il, now presents the official beginning of rule for Kim Jong-un.
Let’s remember that this isn’t something sudden and totally unexpected, and that North Korea has carried out its previous attempts for change in its economic policies, although the one in 2002 was somewhat rolled back (the measures in 2002 under Kim Jong-il weren’t as big as this though).
North Korea has a relatively large private sector (not entirely legal), with some estimates putting it at 50% of North Korea’s GDP. Private vendors can be found in the alleyways of cities, and are compared to ticks as even if one is taken down another one immediately replaces it.
Even real estate is doing good in North Korea, with a new monied middle class (call the donju) born from the North’s illicit private activity and officials vying to buy apartments in Sinuiju near the Chinese border.
The slogans which North Korea has published for the coming 70th anniversary of the end of WWII have a focus on improving people’s living standards and call for increased reconciliation with South Korea. Of course, this is unlikely to happen under the terms of a conservative president, as North Korea believes it’ll have a better deal with the election of a more liberal government like during the presidencies of Kim Daejung and Roh Moohyun.
The Choson Sinbo, an NK-affiliated newspaper in North Korea, has been recently calling the North’s economic style a “flexible collectivist system.” What was most notable to me in the phrase was the word “flexible.”
I’m interested what the consequences this will be for an eventual reunification. A greater North Korean presence in the global economy will inevitably mean greater economic integration with South Korea, considering the advantage which the common language and culture (sort of, like with food and traditional holidays) will put South Korean firms at in operating within North Korea.
Heck, Hallyu has already been establishing itself in North Korea. South Korean dramas, smuggled from China, are a hit in the North. South Korean songs, especially trot (but also those from dramas) are popular among North Koreans, including officials, who will sing them at karaoke while on business in China.
Greater integration into the global economy will also mean that NK will be increasingly pressed to end its more horrific human rights violations, particularly if it wants its recent measures to have greater success.
What I’m also interested in though, is how it compares to the economic liberalization of other countries such as Vietnam, China, Mongolia, and the former states of the Eastern Bloc.
If North Korea does it right, it’s sort of guaranteed to have high economic growth, considering its presence right between China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia, all major global economies. Planes would be able to fly over North Korean airspace and goods would be able to travel by rail through the country, causing South Korea to no longer be like an island. If an undersea tunnel is ever constructed between Japan and Korea, then Japan would also have greater connections to Eurasia.
For those who want more information on North Korea, information about the place is actually pretty easy to obtain. There are many news sites which have sections dedicated to North Korea, such as the English-language versions of major SK news sources (like Hankyoreh and Yonhap), nkeconwatch, dailynk, and NK News. There are also good books on North Korea that deal with things other than the horrors of the concentration camps, although I’ve yet to fully read any books on North Korea.
I made this post without wifi, so I haven’t been able to get the sources up or confirm that everything is exact. I’ll post those later. You can look it up if you’d like to. I did post some sources in the other thread, though.
