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North Korea Development in Major Sectors
Growth in total industrial output was accompanied by changes
in the composition of industry, but large gaps and
inconsistencies in official statistics made it impossible to
assess specific changes accurately. In 1965, the last year for
which data were available for several sectors, the machine
building and metal processing sector--the "engineering sector"--
accounted for the largest share of total industrial production--
29 percent. This figure was a dramatic change from 1946, when the
share of this sector was only 5.1 percent. Machinery building was
regarded as the key to industrialization. The next largest shares
in total industrial production in 1965 were 17.2 percent for
textiles and 9.1 percent for the food processing and luxury goods
industries (see
table 4, Appendix). The share of the machinery
manufacturing industry increased further to 33.7 percent of gross
industrial output in 1980. Although the production of consumer
goods was given more emphasis in the 1970s and 1980s, most
economic resources continue to be devoted to the production of
minerals, metals, and heavy machinery. In fact, most industry is
located around the major mining and machinery manufacturing
centers that form the focal points of the transportation and
communications networks. At the start of the 1990s, the country
had a variety of relatively well developed industries, and in per
capita production of some industrial items was comparable to
those of many middle-income countries.
Data as of June 1993
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