The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics and activities conducted by the enterprise groups that are run by the Workers' Party in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, by examining their formation process, composition, and relationship with the general economic sector based on state planning. Regarding the formation of party-run enterprise groups, in the 1960s, the party-run trading company Daesong Trading Corporation was established, and factories in the general economic sector such as Sariwon Towel Factory were put under the direct management of the party. In addition, in the 1970s, the enterprise groups Daesong, Kungang, Rungrado, and Ponghwa were formed under the management of Room 39 of the Finance Management Department, the Pyongyang Committee, and the Light Industry Department of the Workers' Party with the aim of attracting foreign investment. Through an analysis of these organizations and the activities of the corporate groups, it was confirmed that the export of gold ingots, matsutake mushrooms (Tricholoma matsutake), and red snow crabs were monopolized by these entities. However, the author refutes the conventional view that the party-run enterprise groups unilaterally absorbed resources from the general economic sector, citing the following facts: Sonhung Foodstuff Factory, which was under the management of a party enterprise group, was transferred to the general economic sector; the campaign funds of the Administration Department of the Workers' Party were invested in poultry farms run by the state; and the construction of the Pyongyang Mechanical Pencil Factory and Sangwon Cement Complex were financed with activity funds from Room 39 of the Finance Management Department. These facilities continue to make productive contributions to the state economic program today.

In February 2019, the Community Forest Bill, along with other related amendments, was passed by the Legislative Assembly under the military rule that had continued since the coup in 2014. Previously, it was not legal for people to manage the forest resources they use for their livelihood. Moreover, it was illegal to reside in and cultivate protected areas, even for communities that had existed since before the areas were designated as “protected.” The Community Forest Bill and amendments to other related laws paved the way to resolve these problems. This article examines the provisions of the Community Forest Bill and related amendments, the policy-making process in the military government, and the long history of debate about community forest laws in terms of both the ‘rightsbased approach,’ which calls for legalization of community forests to ensure and extend the local people’s rights to natural resources, and the ‘policy tools approach,’ which regards the local people’s participation in forest management as a tool to realize sustainable management. The examination revealed that these laws and amendments are an extreme application of the ‘policy tool approach,’ which was intended to mobilize people to protect the forest by using the government’s strong control and powerful enforcement via military force. In this sense, it is necessary to carefully follow how the laws are implemented at the field level.

This paper reviews previous research to grasp the institutional background surrounding welfare policies for the elderly in China and the current state of research on such policies, as well as to identify issues that should be researched further in the future. Specifically, the paper divides existing research into three groups: the institutional background of the social security system; welfare regime theory and how it applies to China; and China’s welfare policies for the elderly. The first group clarifies the changes, contents, and characteristics of the social security system in contemporary China. The second group examines the position of these social security systems based on Esping-Andersen’s (1990) welfare regime theory. The third group summarizes previous research on how the Chinese government has responded to the problem of elder care and clarifies the current state of welfare policies for the elderly and related challenges. Finally, future research topics are presented.