North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development

302 Pages·2021·2.308 MB·English

by  Kevin Gray, Jong-Woon Lee

North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development
KevinGrayandJong-WoonLeefocusonthreegeopolitical‘moments’that
havebeencrucialtotheshapingoftheNorthKoreansystem:colonialism,the
Cold War and the rise of China, to demonstrate how broader processes of
geopolitical contestation have fundamentally shaped the emergence and
subsequentdevelopmentoftheNorthKoreanpoliticaleconomy.Theyargue
thatplacingthenexusbetweengeopoliticsanddevelopmentatthecentreof
the analysis helps explain the country’s rapid catch-up industrialisation, its
subsequent secular decline followed by collapse in the 1990s and why the
reformprocesshasbeenmarkedlymoreconservativecomparedtootherstate
socialist societies. As such, they draw attention to the specificities of North
Korea’s experience of late development, but also place it in a broader
comparative context by understanding the country not solely through the
analytical lens of state socialism but also as an instance of postcolonial
nationaldevelopment.
KevinGrayisaprofessorinInternationalRelationsattheSchoolofGlobal
Studies,UniversityofSussex.
Jong-WoonLeeisAssociateProfessorandDirectorofthePeaceEducation
CenteratHanshinUniversity,SouthKorea.
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North Korea and the Geopolitics
of Development
Kevin Gray
UniversityofSussex
Jong-Woon Lee
HanshinUniversity
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108843652
DOI:10.1017/9781108919579
©KevinGrayandJong-WoonLee2021
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Firstpublished2021
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Gray,Kevin,1973-author.|Lee,Jong-Woon,author.
Title:NorthKoreaandthegeopoliticsofdevelopment/KevinGray,Jong-WoonLee.
Description:Cambridge;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,2021.|
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2020042670(print)|LCCN2020042671(ebook)|
ISBN9781108843652(hardback)|ISBN9781108826396(paperback)|
ISBN9781108919579(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Economicdevelopment–Korea(North)|Geopolitics–Korea(North)|
Geopolitics–EastAsia.|Korea(North)–Economicconditions.|Korea(North)–
Foreigneconomicrelations.|Korea(North)–Politicsandgovernment.
Classification:LCCHC470.2.G732021(print)|LCCHC470.2(ebook)|
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To Yunjeong
Jong-Woon Lee
To my parents
Kevin Gray
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Contents
List of Figures page viii
List of Tables ix
Preface xi
Introduction: The Development–Geopolitics Nexus inNorthKorea 1
1 State-Building and LateDevelopmentinNorthKorea 31
2 Post-War ReconstructionandCatch-Up Industrialisation 58
3 Geopolitical Contestation and theChallenge toNorth
KoreanDevelopment 86
4 Economic Decline andthe Crisis ofthe 1990s 112
5 MarketisationandtheTransformationoftheNorthKoreanState 137
6 North Korean Economic Reform in theShadow of China 167
7 Dependency inChinese–NorthKoreanRelations? 193
8 International Sanctions and North Korean Development 219
Conclusion 245
Bibliography 256
Index 281
vii
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Figures
1.1 The state emblem ofNorthKorea page 32
7.1 Trendsin North Korea’s trade with China (2000–17) 197
7.2 Trendsin North Korea’s major exports toChina 198
7.3 NorthKorea’sclothing exportsto China 209
7.4 Changing structure of North Korea’s exports toChina 210
8.1 NorthKorea’strade with China, South Korea and Japan 227
8.2 Market exchange rate of North Korean won toUS dollar 229
8.3 Trendsin price of high-qualityrice 229
8.4 Trendsin internationalhumanitarian aidtoNorthKorea 241
viii
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Tables
1.1 Confiscation and redistribution through land reform page 52
2.1 Economic plans duringthe post-war reconstructionperiod 62
2.2 The state budget during the Three-Year Plan 66
2.3 Announced results of theThree-Year Plan 67
2.4 Socialist aidto North Korea, 1954–61 70
2.5 Agricultural collectivisation inNorth Korea 72
2.6 Industrial production asa percentage ofnational income 82
2.7 Urbanpopulation in state socialistsocieties 83
3.1 First Seven-YearPlan (1961–67) 91
3.2 Estimates onNorthKorea’sbudget spendingand
defence expenditure 99
4.1 Estimates onNorthKorea’strade inthe 1960sand 1970s 114
4.2 NorthKorea’s economicplans between the1970s and 1980s 117
7.1 China’s major anthracite import sources, 2014–16 206
8.1 UNSC resolutions related with North Korea 223
ix
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