North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development

Examines how the emergence of North Korea's political economy was fundamentally shaped by broader processes of geopolitical contestation.

Kevin Gray (Author), Jong-Woon Lee (Author)

9781108843652, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 April 2021

350 pages
16 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.59 kg

'This thought-provoking and deeply researched volume is a valuable addition to the field.' Jihyun Kim, Journal of Contemporary Asia

Kevin Gray and Jong-Woon Lee focus on three geopolitical 'moments' that have been crucial to the shaping of the North Korean system: colonialism, the Cold War, and the rise of China, to demonstrate how broader processes of geopolitical contestation have fundamentally shaped the emergence and subsequent development of the North Korean political economy. They argue that placing the nexus between geopolitics and development at the centre of the analysis helps explain the country's rapid catch-up industrialisation, its subsequent secular decline followed by collapse in the 1990s, and why the reform process has been markedly more conservative compared to other state socialist societies. As such, they draw attention to the specificities of North Korea's experience of late development, but also place it in a broader comparative context by understanding the country not solely through the analytical lens of state socialism but also as an instance of post-colonial national development.

Preface
Introduction: The Development-Geopolitics Nexus in North Korea
1. State Building and Late Development in North Korea
2. Post-War Reconstruction and Catch-Up Industrialisation
3. Geopolitical Contestation and the Challenge to North Korean Development
4. Economic Decline and the Crisis of the 1990s
5. Marketisation and the Transformation of the North Korean State
6.North Korean Economic Reform in the Shadow of China
7. Dependency in Chinese-North Korean Relations?
8. International Sanctions and North Korean Development
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], Central government policies [JPQB], Politics & government [JP]