Kim Jong-un’s failure to reform North Korea’s socio-economic outlook: a chip off the old block?

Wed, Jan 22, 2014 12:04 CET

This article published in Asian Studies Review, by Yong Soo Park, discusses the policies of the new regime in North Korea, ruled by Kim Jong-un. After more than half a Century ‘s intense dictatorship by Kim Jong-un’s father and grandfather before, North Korea has become a country suffering great economic hardships and international isolation. Many hoped that with the inauguration of a young European educated Kim Jong-un, he would have the courage to exercise bold policy changes and widespread reforms necessary to improve the North Korean economy and competitiveness in the international market. Yong Soo Park uses the path dependency theory to illustrate why this has not happened and how Kim Jong-un has been habituated by the first military policy, Juche ideology and the monolithic system.

North Korea’s economic penury is painfully highlighted by South Korea which has a Gross National Income twenty times greater than that of its impoverished neighbour. Yong Soo Park discusses how China’s Deng Xiaoping initiated radical reforms which have given China one of the largest growing economies still ruled a dictatorship. Conversely, North Korea’s new leader seems bound by outdated ideology and systems of governance, which become further entrenched with time. North Korea’s system of hereditary succession is a Catch 22 denying the diversity required to break the mould. Yong Soo Park uses the path dependency theory to explain how the monolithic system and Juche ideology have caused policy inertia, lack of political and institutional reforms, and continued status quo.

The monolithic system in North Korea has enabled the monopoly of power by 3 generations of one family. It focuses ultimate power in the hands of one person and the nation mirrors the ideologies, and celebrates the rule of the supreme leader in all aspects of life. Yong Soo Park explains how the monolithic system is centred around Juche ideology. This, originally an anti-Soviet sentiment, has three elements; “independence in politics”, “self-sufficiency in the economy”, and “self-reliance in national defence”. This has been fundamental to the abandonment of foreign trade, North Korea’s socio-economic decline and inward seeking political policies. This, in conjunction with the military first policy, instigated by Kim Jong-il to bolster military power, has left North Korea bristling with weapons but deficient in a market based economy and with a stifled population unable to innovate.

Yong Soo Park notes how Kim Jong-un has reinforced the monolithic system, Juche ideology and military first policy by his appointment as not only supreme leader of North Korea but also leader of the 1.2 million strong army, of the Korean Workers Party and of the National Defence Commission. He belligerently persisted in testing long range missiles, in defiance of agreements with the US and has announced his intention to spend a large proportion of budget on the military. Yong Soo Park concludes that by doggedly upholding existing ideologies and displaying classic path dependency, Kim Jong-un is unlikely to bring significant change to the fortunes of North Korea.

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Asian Studies Review is a multidisciplinary journal of contemporary and modern Asia. The journal sets out to showcase high quality scholarship on the modern histories, cultures, societies, languages, politics and religions of Asia through the publication of research articles, book reviews and review articles. It welcomes the submission of research articles from across the broad spectrum of the social sciences and humanities on all the regions of Asia and on international and transnational issues in which Asia is the major point of focus. Asian Studies Review sets out to publish a balanced mixture of articles in both traditional and emerging disciplines. The invited review articles and book reviews published in Asian Studies Review provide a vital point of articulation between the scholarship on display in the research articles and the broader world of Asian Studies .