It is a fact that North Korea had a superior industrial infrastructure than South Korea in the early 1970s. But since the beginning of 1990s, North Korean economy continuously declined in the aspect of economy and eventually North Korean economy becam...
It is a fact that North Korea had a superior industrial infrastructure than South Korea in the early 1970s. But since the beginning of 1990s, North Korean economy continuously declined in the aspect of economy and eventually North Korean economy became unrecoverable. This study focuses on finding the key to this problem and on obtaining the strategy to overcome this financial tragedy. In order to tackle these issues, this study investigates, in a technical and an empirical method, the long-term structural changes of the North Korean economy after the division of Korea. With the results of these analyses, this study is able to assess the recent North Korean economic growth strategies and furthermore, prospect the potential of the North Korean economic growth.
In the second chapter, the period from 1954 to 2008 is divided into 5 different periods; rapid growth period(1954∼1980), adjustment period(1981∼1985), re-growth period(1986∼1990), economic recession period(1991∼1998), and recovery period(1999∼2008). The factors that affected the economic changes were carefully analyzed within these periods.In the early stage, due to the reliance on the former communist nations, North Korea was able to obtain a rapid and a stable economic growth. But in the late 1980s, these nations commenced to collapse which hindered the North Korean economic growth and eventually led to the lack of structural changes. Moreover, one of the most significant policies that affected the economic structural change in North Korea, the foreign open-door policy, did not aid in the economic growth. Foreign capital was invested in inefficient and uneconomical sectors such as the policy which gave priority to the heavy industries and in massive war expenditures. Therefore, this eventually caused the distortion of resource distribution and raised tension among foreign countries. North Korea once again fell into the cycle of reinforcing its military sector.
In the third chapter, the causes of the structural changes of North Korean economy were empirically analyzed. First of all, we can observe that the capital stock affected the structural changes in each period immensely and the fact thatthe productivity of capital dominated 50% of the economic growth can be a proof. On the other hand, labor productivity and technological progress relatively affected the structural changes less significantly. So when the capital productivity and capital capacity started to decline, the motive of the economic growth weakened. Furthermore, the cause of the change from the economic recession period to the recovery period was the rally effect between the capital productivity and the necessary technical conditions. But currently, there is no technological progress and the capital capacity is also declining, so it is difficult to say that North Korea will continue to recover through the improvement of labor productivity, capital productivity and technological progress. Therefore, in order for the North Korean economy to pass through the recovery stage and enter another growth phase, it has to study how to obtain high-quality capital and examine its capability to improvelabor productivity and technological progress.
In the fourth chapter, the outlook of the economic growth methods according to the changes in the North Korean economic environment is included. First of all, credible time-series data was collected, and then through the causality test, empirical analysis model was constructed to specify the causes of the economic changes in North Korea. As a result, according to the VAR (Vector Auto Regressive) model analysis, if North Korean economy maintains its economic situation, economic growth will continuously decline and in about 10 years, a low, 2.9%,economic growth rate will be recorded. On the other hand, if foreign trade expansion occurs then North Korea will be able to obtain a sustainable economic growth. For example, an increase of 1% of trade will lead to an increase of GNI of 0.75% after 12 quarters. With these results, two scenarios were constructed to predict the economic growth of the period 2013∼2017. If the fluctuation rate further augments from the period which performed economically well, 2002 to 2005, then there will be a drastic fluctuation during the period 2009∼2012. Moreover, in 2014∼2015, we can estimate that North Korea will record a negative economic growth. However, if the average trade growth rate can be maintained at 11.9% for 4 years with the help of exterior conditions, then the economy of North Korea will record a high economic average growth rate of 8.8% in about 5 years time.
Finally, in the fifth chapter, the economic development strategy during the Kim Jung Il period and the success rate of the development strategy in various environments that affects the execution process are examined. Entering year 2000, North Korea viewed 7.1 economic management improvement action and special economic zone policy such as Mountain Geumgang and Kaesung as the key to economic revival and a path to the construction of a strong nation because it will be able to attract foreign capital and introduce advanced technology. But the foreign and domestic environment surrounding North Korean economy is assumed to act as a severe hindrance to this plan. For example, the North Korean nuclear issue, the instable relationship between North and South Korea, and the expected system post Kim Jung Il will become an obstacle to the foreign open-door policy and foreign capital attraction which are assumed to be the core elements of the economic development strategy. Consequently, North Korea will have trouble in constructing a strong nation by 2012. In order for North Korea to successfully construct a strong nation by 2012, it will have to resolve the nuclear problem and improve the relationship between South Korea and also other countries. Furthermore, North Korea has to also continuously support open-door policy and systematic stability.