North Korea: The last transition economy?

Vincent Koen () and Jinwoan Beom

No 1607, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The North Korean economy has been a statistical black hole for decades but is undergoing substantial transformations. Rapid post-war industrialisation was not sustained beyond the mid-1960s and South Korea’s economy far outpaced North Korea’s during the next three decades, during which trend growth declined and turned negative as Soviet support ended and the terms of trade with China became less friendly. Today, GDP in North Korea is reportedly lower than in 1990, notwithstanding a larger population, and gross national income per capita is probably down to only a tiny fraction of South Korea’s.

Keywords: central planning; China; construction; corruption; defence; development; digitalisation; energy; exchange rates; food; health; international sanctions; marketisation; monetary reform; natural disasters; North Korea; pollution; rail; Russia; smuggling; South Korea; Soviet; special economic zones; tourism; trade; transition; transport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N15 N35 N45 N55 N65 N75 O21 O53 P21 P22 P23 P24 P26 P27 P28 P31 P52 Z32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-his and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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