Seungho Jung, an Associate Professor of the School of Northeast Asian Studies at Incheon National University, analyzes the possibility that livelihoods of the North Korean people have worsened despite overall economic growth. Professor Jung assesses that a surge in consumer prices and the regime’s strengthened control on the economy suggest that ...

Byung-yeon Kim, Distinguished Professor at Seoul National University, examines North Korea’s recent economic performance, comparing it to the relative stability of its policies from 2013 to 2023, with a focus on exchange rate stability and price control. He analyzes the links between rising wages, surging exchange rates, and the regime’s attemp...

Hae Jung Lee, a research fellow at the Hyundai Research Institute, notes that North Korea's economic development has been lagging throughout the first half of 2024, despite its efforts toward regional and local development. While she does not foresee substantial improvements in the country's economic situation for the remainder of the year, Lee sug...

In this Special Report, Changyong Choi, Associate Professor at the Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Administration, calls for South Korea to engage in trilateral cooperation with international financial institutions to offer capacity-building programs and knowledge-sharing projects to North Korea, thereby providing the North with...

Amid North Korea’s continued provocations, South Korea not only lies under external threats emerging from Pyongyang’s weapons proliferation, but also from domestic factors such as political polarization. Vowed to open an era of national unity, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, set to inaugurate on May 10th, faces a myriad of challenges in build...

The following Research Review contains a summary of the article “Changes in North Korea’s Financial System During the Kim Jong Un Era: Based on North Korean Literature,” co-authored by Minjung Kim and Sung Min Moon of the Bank of Korea. In this Research Review, Minjung Kim, an economist in the Economic Research Institute at Bank of Korea, dis...

As part of the Global NK Zoom & Connect project, the East Asia Institute (President Yul Sohn) held “North Korea in 2022: Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s Message and the Korean Peninsula." This webinar analyzed and forecasted North Korea's strategy in 2022 based on New Years' messages from the plenary meeting of the central committee of North Korean ...

Under Kim Jong Un, marketization has been somewhat introduced to the current socialist system. In this commentary, Moon-soo Yang, Professor and Vice-President of the University of North Korean Studies, discusses the recent phenomenon of marketization in North Korea, the development of an informal labor market, and its implications on the regime. Ac...

North Korean businesses run by state-supplied energy have not been properly operated due to a sharp decrease in energy supply. Long-standing energy shortages have paralyzed the state energy supply and demand system, causing further disruptions in statewide functions. In this commentary, Kyung-sool Kim, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Korea E...

Propaganda, among other tools, is a widely used means by the North Korean government to bolster the basis of its regime. The use of distorted news through inaccurate publications is one way in which propagandistic information is circulated within not only North Korea, but also in foreign countries online. In this commentary, Dr. Sandip Mishra, Asso...