Online Series

This year, North Korea is concluding various economic tasks presented at the 8th Party Congress in 2021. At the last party congress, North Korea promoted the strengthening of “the state's coordinating function” as an economic management policy alongside the ‘Five-Year Plan for National Economic Development (2021-2025)’. This article discusses North Korea's economic management policies since the 8th Party Congress from the perspective of strengthening state control through the promotion of informatization. While the various development policies pursued by North Korea over the past five years have received considerable attention, changes in its economic management policies have not been widely noted. This is primarily due to the fact that economic management plays a relatively minor role in North Korea's economic policy commentary and propaganda. Furthermore, the relevant evidence is dispersed across various reports and laws, which complicates analysis. However, over the past five years, the direction and methods of economic management have shown relatively clear changes in the process of enacting and revising North Korea's economic laws and major policy decisions. The general approach to economic management is shifting toward strengthening state control over the circulation of grain, consumer goods, and currency while maintaining the "Socialist Enterprise Responsibility Management System." In terms of economic management methods, the use of information technology is increasing control and management of economic transaction information, which is particularly evident in the financial, monetary, and pricing sector.