Unveiling the North Korean Economy
Collapse and Transition

A comprehensive, systematic analysis of the North Korean economy, exposing its hidden workings through quantitative data analysis and surveys.

Byung-Yeon Kim (Author)

9781107183797, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 June 2017

340 pages
23.9 x 16.6 x 2 cm, 0.67 kg

'Totaling just over three hundred pages in length, the scope of this investigation is impressive. Readers with only a passing familiarity with the history of the North Korean economy, or entirely unfamiliar with it, will find much of value in this account. It provides a succinct overview of the basic elements of North Korea's socialist economy and its collapse in the 1990s (and the accompanying famine), as well as a readable overview of the transition, de-centralization, and marketization of the economy and the political implications these changes have for regime stability and the country's political future.' Steven Denney, Journal of American-East Asian Relations

North Korea is one of the most closed and secretive societies in the world. Despite a high level of interest from the outside world, we have very little detailed information about how the country functions economically. In this valuable book for both the academic and policy-making circles, Byung-Yeon Kim offers the most comprehensive and systematic analysis of the present day North Korean economy in the context of economic systems and transition economics. It addresses what is really happening in the North Korean economy, why it has previously failed, and how the country can make the transition to a market economy. It takes advantage not only of carefully reconstructed macro data but also rich, new data at the micro level, such as quantitative surveys of North Korean refugees settled in South Korea, and the surveys of Chinese companies that interact heavily with North Korea.

Introduction
1. An evaluation of the socialist economy
2. The North Korean economy
3. Transition of the North Korean economy
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economics [KC], International relations [JPS], Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies [JPFF]