North Korea ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
The West Sea Barrage, an eight-kilometer-long sea wall,
helps to irrigate the west coast.
Painting at the West Sea Barrage depicting Kim Il Sung and
Kim Jong Il at the construction site
Courtesy Tracy Woodward
It appeared for a time that North Korea could not remain
immune indefinitely to the fallout from the political and
economic collapse of communist regimes as well as to the rise of
South Korea as an economic powerhouse. Eventually, the severe
economic difficulties and adverse changes in the international
environment will become serious enough to compel the North Korean
leadership to introduce some changes in the economic
institutions. At the outset of 1993, however, it does not seem
that North Korea will fundamentally overhaul its economic system.
Only selective reforms--such as the gradual expansion of peasant
and handicraft markets, extension of free-market-based retail
outlets dealing with local consumer goods, and a much wider
application of the independent accounting system in industrial
enterprises with more discretion for the disposition of the
"profits"--are expected to be implemented.
North Korea's leadership probably drew a lesson from China's
experience: in spite of popular demands that political
liberalization follow economic liberalization, communist rule can
still be prolonged if leaders have sufficient will and power. The
decision to adopt both Chinese-style joint ventures and special
economic zones shows that North Korean leaders are willing to
make that gamble. But they are more likely to open the economy to
foreign trade and direct investment than to approve fundamental
economic reforms.
Expanding economic ties with South Korea and diplomatic
normalization with Japan offers the greatest future economic
opportunities. One important component of the off-again-on-again
negotiations for normalization that began in 1990 is North
Korea's demand that Japan provide reparations as compensation for
its colonial rule over Korea. Both reparations and improved
political relations with Japan will ease North Korea's economic
hardships. Reparations can be used immediately to repay part of
North Korea's debt to Japan, alleviating a longstanding source of
friction between the two countries and paving the way toward
importing much-needed advanced capital goods and technology from
Japan.
The possibility of joint ventures with South Korean firms
and, to a lesser extent, with mainstream Japanese firms is
particularly promising. North Korea's cheap labor force will be a
strong magnet for South Korean and Japanese firms, at least
initially. In time, North Korean workers will need more technical
training, and the communist managers will have to be taught
Western management practices, both of which will add to labor
costs.
The economic role of formerly communist allies, particularly
that of the former Soviet Union, is expected to decline
drastically. By the end of the decade, Japan will likely become
North Korea's second largest trading partner after Russia and
then possibly its largest trading partner--or at least its
largest source of imports. Inter-Korean trade, however, has the
potential to increase to the point that South Korea may
eventually overtake Japan in a decade or so to become North
Korea's largest trading partner. If this occurs, China and Russia
will probably become North Korea's third and fourth largest
trading partners, respectively.
North Korea's admission to the UN in 1991 makes it eligible
for various types of economic, scientific, and technical
assistance from the UN and its various specialized agencies. UN
membership also increases the possibility that North Korea can
participate in international organizations such as the
World Bank (see Glossary)
and the IMF.
Reparations payments and economic aid from Japan, trade
credits from South Korea, and participation in various
international organizations will substantially help North Korea's
modernization. A modernized and expanded infrastructure--with
particular attention to transportation and communications--will
have to precede the commitment of scarce resources to modernizing
a specific industrial sector or plant.
In order to alleviate chronic energy shortages and meet
growing industrial needs, rebuilding and restructuring the energy
industry will have to take precedence over other industrial
projects. Restructuring could eventually alter the practice of
relying equally on coal-powered and hydroelectric plants,
gradually replacing coal with alternative sources such as nuclear
energy. Doing so would make electric-power generation less
vulnerable to the faltering coal industry and to the vagaries of
rainfall. The extractive industries will also have to receive
substantial investment before North Korea can take advantage of
its mineral resources. Easily accessed coal may have been
depleted; as with iron ores, zinc, and other minerals, deeper
seams will have to be mined. It also will be necessary to
introduce modern mining equipment and techniques.
Although poor harvests frequently are attributed to bad
weather, farming is relatively well developed. Nonetheless,
productivity can be greatly increased by introducing modern farm
machinery, high-quality seeds, and more and better distribution
of fertilizer. The prospects for improving farm output through
decollectivization, however, appear to be dim in the near future.
With the Cold War over and the signing of the Agreement on
Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Exchanges, and Cooperation between
the two Koreas in December 1991, reduced defense expenditures are
a real possibility in the near future. Arms control already is on
the agenda in the inter-Korean talks. Diverting some or most of
North Korea's defense spending to economic development projects
would make a substantial contribution toward economic progress.
As of mid-1993, however, it did not appear that the
nonaggression pact would soon pave the way to economic
integration and reunification of the two Koreas. Significant
differences in the unification formulas remains. There is little
likelihood of a German-style absorption of North Korea by South
Korea, and North Korea has voiced its concern and opposition to
the possibility of absorption to the South Korean authorities. If
South Korea had ever entertained the idea of a German-style
unification, the hindsight of the German experience has forced it
to take a more sober and realistic appraisal of the possibility.
The huge cost of absorption would economically overwhelm South
Korea and have the potential of destabilizing the entire Korean
Peninsula. However, inter-Korean economic cooperation through
trade and joint ventures has the potential of significantly jump
starting and modernizing the North Korean economy by introducing
South Korean capital and technological and managerial know-how.
Improvements in the North Korean economy will, in turn,
facilitate and increase the probability of economic integration
and eventual reunification.
* * *
Because of the secretive nature of the North Korean regime,
the scarcity of consistent and reliable economic data,
particularly since the 1960s, makes studying its economy a
challenge. Among the North Korean sources that consistently
contain economic topics are Chosn chungyang yngam
(Korean Central Yearbook), an annual with sections on the economy
and other related topics; K lloja (The Worker), a monthly
journal of the KWP Central Committee; Nodong simmun
(Workers' Daily), the KWP's daily newspaper; and Foreign Trade
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Korea
Today, monthly English-language periodicals. K lloja
and other Korean-languages periodicals, as well as those in other
languages such as Japanese, are available in English as the
Korean Affairs Report series issued by the United States Joint
Publications Research Service.
The most useful Japanese source is Kita Ch sen no keizai
to b eki no tenb (North Korean Economic and Trade
Prospects), an annual published by the Japan External Trade
Organization (JETRO) that contains up-to-date surveys of the
economy and statistical data on trade. Another informative
Japanese source is the monthly periodical Kita Ch sen
kenky (Studies on North Korea). Two additional useful South
Korean sources are issued monthly: Vantage Point, an
English-language periodical of the Naewoe Press in Seoul devoted
to events in North Korea, and Pukhan (North Korea). Other
South Korean English-language periodicals frequently contain
articles on the North Korean economy: Asian Perspective, a
biannual published by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of
Kyungnam University; Korea Observer, a quarterly of the
Institute of Korean Studies; and Korea and World Affairs,
a quarterly by the Research Center for Peace and Unification of
Korea.
Other valuable English-languages sources are the weekly
Far Eastern Economic Review and its annual publication,
Asia Yearbook; Country Report: China, North Korea,
a quarterly report put out by the Economist Intelligence Unit,
and its annual survey, Country Profile: China, North
Korea; January issues of Asian Survey, which carry the
annual survey on North Korea; Yearbook of International Trade
Statistics by the United Nations; the Direction of Trade
Statistics of the International Monetary Fund; and the United
States Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report:
East Asia. (For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of June 1993
|