NORTH KOREAN ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT POLICY: A COMPARISON WITH CHINESE ECONOMIC REFORM POLICY

Abstract

In July 2002, North Korea announced a series of economic adjustment policies. This paper compares the adjustment policy of North Korea with the reform policy of China. North Korea, unlike China, had no real change in the political regimes and, therefore, it was inevitable that the reform would not be very comprehensive. In any reform, a proper "sequence" of reforms is important. North Korea ignored the proper sequence of reform. For instance, in North Korea price reform was implemented first without securing an adequate supply of food and consumer production despite an acute shortage of supply in these goods. The results of the adjustment policy were hyper-inflation and a wider gap in income distribution.