The Process of Marketisation and Economic Realities in the DPRK

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyses the pattern and degree of marketisation in the DPRK by drawing on sources from within that society. In doing so it creates a point of departure from most conventional analyses of the DPRK economy, which prioritise defector accounts. The conventional view, informed by these accounts, is that jangmadang (quasi-free markets) have been created by ordinary people to meet their basic needs. In this view, ‘marketisation from below’ started when the Public Distribution System broke down due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, upon which the DPRK economy had depended. It is also claimed that as the economy has failed to recover from its prolonged crisis, the State has become dependent upon these markets. However, a careful review of materials produced inside the DPRK indicates that marketisation started ‘from above’ in the early 1980s, with Kim Il Sung’s directives to assuage the chronic shortages of consumer goods. As such, this article contends that marketisation in the DPRK began and has proceeded in accordance with the State’s control and influence. The country’s complete closure of its borders to prevent COVID-19 in the early 2020s confirmed that markets play only a limited role in DPRK society.