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3.5 billion (2023 est.) [2] Main data source: CIA World Fact Book. All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars. The economy of North Korea is a centrally planned economy, following Juche, where the role of market allocation schemes is limited, although increasing. [11] [12] As of 2022, North Korea continues its basic adherence to a ...
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North Korea, [c] officially the Democratic People's Republic...
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- Economy of North Korea
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North Korea has a command (centralized) economy. The state controls all means of production, and the government sets priorities and emphases in economic development. Since 1954, economic policy has been promulgated through a series of national economic plans. The early plans gave high priority to postwar reconstruction and the development of heavy industries, especially chemicals and metals. Subsequent plans focused on resource exploitation and improving technology, mechanization, and infrastructure. Little attention was given to agriculture until the 1970s, and it was not until the late 1980s that much effort was made to improve the quality and quantity of consumer goods.
Reliable information on the performance of the North Korean economy usually has been lacking. Outside observers have concluded that the country has consistently failed to meet its stated goals and that production statistics released by the government often have been inflated. Thus, although North Korea has made strong efforts to transform an essentially agrarian economy into one centred on modern industry in the post-Korean War years, it is generally believed that the country has been only partially successful.
North Korea’s economic goals have always been linked to the general government policy of self-reliance (juche, or chuch’e). The country shunned foreign investment, although it accepted considerable economic aid from the Soviet Union and its satellite eastern European countries as well as from China. Despite its stated policy of self-reliance, North Korea routinely found it necessary to import such essential commodities as fuels and machinery as well as grain.
By the early 1990s, North Korea had begun to experience severe economic hardships. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and the communist regimes of its eastern European allies had fallen, depriving North Korea of most of its trading partners and much of its former aid. China reduced but did not completely cut off its provision of materials to North Korea, but in 1992 it began to demand cash payments in place of grants-in-aid or credit accounts. In addition, in the mid-1990s the country suffered a series of natural disasters, including floods and drought. Serious grain and food shortages resulted, and starvation and malnutrition were widespread throughout the country.
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North Korea has a command (centralized) economy. The state controls all means of production, and the government sets priorities and emphases in economic development. Since 1954, economic policy has been promulgated through a series of national economic plans. The early plans gave high priority to postwar reconstruction and the development of heavy industries, especially chemicals and metals. Subsequent plans focused on resource exploitation and improving technology, mechanization, and infrastructure. Little attention was given to agriculture until the 1970s, and it was not until the late 1980s that much effort was made to improve the quality and quantity of consumer goods.
Reliable information on the performance of the North Korean economy usually has been lacking. Outside observers have concluded that the country has consistently failed to meet its stated goals and that production statistics released by the government often have been inflated. Thus, although North Korea has made strong efforts to transform an essentially agrarian economy into one centred on modern industry in the post-Korean War years, it is generally believed that the country has been only partially successful.
North Korea’s economic goals have always been linked to the general government policy of self-reliance (juche, or chuch’e). The country shunned foreign investment, although it accepted considerable economic aid from the Soviet Union and its satellite eastern European countries as well as from China. Despite its stated policy of self-reliance, North Korea routinely found it necessary to import such essential commodities as fuels and machinery as well as grain.
By the early 1990s, North Korea had begun to experience severe economic hardships. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and the communist regimes of its eastern European allies had fallen, depriving North Korea of most of its trading partners and much of its former aid. China reduced but did not completely cut off its provision of materials to North Korea, but in 1992 it began to demand cash payments in place of grants-in-aid or credit accounts. In addition, in the mid-1990s the country suffered a series of natural disasters, including floods and drought. Serious grain and food shortages resulted, and starvation and malnutrition were widespread throughout the country.
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By 1958 all privately owned farms were incorporated into more than 3,000 cooperatives; each cooperative comprises about 300 families on about 1,200 acres (500 hectares). The farm units are controlled by management committees, which issue orders to the work teams, set the type and amount of seed and fertilizer to be used, and establish production quotas. Produce is delivered to the government, which controls distribution through state stores. There are also state and provincial model farms for research and development.
Agriculture contributes a decreasing proportion to the national economy, but there has been an overall increase in cultivated land, irrigation projects, the use of chemical fertilizers, and mechanization. Nonetheless, since the early 1990s, North Korea has had a chronic shortage of chemical fertilizers, seed grains, and farming equipment. Farmers are paid for their labour in money or in kind and are allowed to keep chickens, bees, fruit trees, and gardens. In theory, farmers can sell surplus produce at local markets that are held periodically, but with the food crisis that began in the mid-1990s, any surplus above the subsistence level disappeared. Although farmers fared relatively better than most urban workers during the lean years, even they struggled for survival.
The main food crops are grains—notably rice, corn (maize), wheat, and barley. The country formerly produced enough rice for domestic consumption, but some is now imported. Wheat had to be imported even before the period of food shortages, although wheat productivity increased after the mid-1950s. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other beans, vegetables, and tree fruits are raised extensively. Industrial crops include tobacco, cotton, flax, and rape (an herb grown for its oilseeds). Livestock raising is concentrated in areas poorly suited for crop raising. Livestock production has increased steadily, especially poultry production, over the country’s history. However, all sectors of agricultural production were drastically affected during the food crisis.
The northern interior contains large forest reserves of larch, spruce, and pine trees. Most of the coastal slopes have been extensively deforested, however, much of this having been done by the Japanese during World War II; reforestation programs have stressed economic forestry. Forestry production, after having declined following the war, has not grown substantially. Much of the wood cut is used as firewood. During the severe fuel shortage that accompanied the years of economic crisis, North Koreans indiscriminately—and often illegally—cut down trees for firewood. Many hillsides in the country are now barren; the loss of forest cover contributes to massive flooding in the monsoon season, which in turn leads to poor harvests and further economic hardships.
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The economy of North Korea is a centrally planned economy, following Juche, where the role of market allocation schemes is limited, although increasing. As of 2022, North Korea continues its basic adherence to a centralized planned economy. With a total gross domestic product of $28.500 billion as of 2016, there has been some economic liberalization, particularly after Kim Jong Un assumed the ...
The Republic of Korea is the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, and was occupied by the United States, and the U.S. set up a democracy in the south. At first, there was a war between the north and south which is called the Korean War, but while the fighting stopped in 1953, the war never officially ended. North Korea had ties with China and ...
The history of North Korea began with the end of World War II in 1945. The surrender of Japan led to the division of Korea at the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the north, and the United States occupying the south. The Soviet Union and the United States failed to agree on a way to unify the country, and in 1948, they established ...
