Book contents
- North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development
- North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- 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
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Marketisation and the Transformation of the North Korean State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 September 2021
- North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development
- North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- 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
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In chapter five, we argue that the economic collapse and famine of the 1990s profoundly transformed North Korea’s political economy. North Korea’s population increasingly turned towards market activities for their survival. North Koreans have continued to rely on markets for food and everyday goods, though marketisation has since expanded to the services, transport and housing sectors. While much of the existing literature has presented state and market as situated in a zero-sum relationship, we challenge the ontological separation between state and market to argue that the rise of the market in North Korea has been closely intertwined with the state. State officials have increasingly become involved in market activities, and the growing entrepreneurial class have entered into partnerships with officials as a means of negotiating the lack of clear property rights. The state has also taken a leading role in furthering the process of marketisation through the creation of new economic sectors, such as the mobile communications sector, for example.
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- North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development , pp. 137 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021