GMU Korea Seminar Series

Perspectives on North Korea's Economic Openness

Monday, December 9, 2019 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM KST
Mason Korea (119 Songdomunhwa-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Korea), #G209

A Talk by Jang C. Jin

(Professor, Department of Economics, GMU Korea)

 

This paper aims to examine the possible roles of economic openness in the resurgence of the devastated North Korean economy. The North Korean economy has suffered severely for several decades resulting from military build-ups in the 1970s–1990s and also from focusing on nuclear bomb threats in the 2000s–2010s. But if North Korea denuclearizes and instead liberalizes its economy, the benefits of economic openness are expected to be significant to revitalize the economy. In this case, the most difficult part in North Korea would be how to switch the socialist command economy to the socialist market economy. Although political and military concerns on the worst case scenario are immediate barriers to open, the success story of China’s economic growth would be a role model for North Korea.