Economic Policy
Yongusil 79: Market Size and Geography in North Korea
A new SAIS report uses satellite imagery to measure North Korean market sizes as they have fluctuated over the past decade. Sino-NK goes into orbit behind the oculus, assessing gains and limitations of the data.
How Not to Invest in a DPRK Special Economic Zone: The Case of Rason
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are spaces of great potential in North Korea. Théo Clément evaluates the terrain, based on his own on-site inspection and a holistic reading of North Korea’s premier northern SEZ.
Putting Statistics to the May 30th Measure
Interpreting economic data in and about North Korea is tricky; individual data points can balloon out of control. Christopher Green looks at the debate over North Korean economic growth and what really happened on May 30.
Yongusil 67: Footprints of the Dead and the Utility of Returns: Recent Works from the KEI Academic Paper Series
This Yongusil recounts the footsteps of Sino-NK contributors into Washington, DC, and the august academic paper and seminar series of the Korean Economic Institute.
Command and Conquer: The Co-option of Market Forces in the DPRK
Marketization in North Korea does more to maintain the regime than undermine it, argues Park Hyeong-jung of KINU. In the latest in a series of review essays covering key elements of contemporary North Korean economic history, Christopher Green reviews Park’s “Towards a Political Analysis of Markets in North Korea.”
Friends in Need: Choe Swoops in on DPRK-Russia Relations
On Monday, Korean Workers’ Party Secretary Choe Ryong-hae will embark upon an extended visit to Russia as a special representative of the Kim government. In this, his debut essay for Sino-NK, analyst Anthony Rinna looks at the potential of the visit, and its limitations.
Chosun Ilbo Surveys 100 North Koreans
The results of a recent survey conducted by Chosun Ilbo of visa-holding North Koreans in the Sino-North Korean borderlands offer a rare, if imperfect, glimpse of domestic public opinion in the DPRK. Christopher Green analyzes the findings.
Politics and Pollack: It Takes a Nation of Fishes
Bringing his Politics and Pollack series to a close, Robert Winstanley-Chesters explores the most recent pelagic developments in North Korea, focusing on the January 8 Fishing Station and the problematic notion of “charismatic time.”
After the Collapse: The Formalization of Market Structures in North Korea, 1994-2010
With the collapse of the state-run distribution service in North Korea, market trading, selling, and buying became a means of survival. What started then is now an integral and formalized part of economic and social life. Peter Ward’s second review concerns Joung Eun-lee’s article on market development in North Korea from the early 1990s to the present.
