TITLE:
The Black Markets of North Korea
AUTHORS:
Qifan Xiang
KEYWORDS:
North Korea, Economy, Consumerism, Famine, Black Markets, Sanctions, Nuclear Weapons, Drug Trafficking, Arms Trade, Currency Counterfeiting
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.10 No.7,
July
19,
2019
ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the
foreign and domestic economies of North Korea, particularly concerning illicit
black market activities. Regime doctrine of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea has been adamant about the country’s sustained self reliance, often
making claims of this nature through public
broadcasts to its citizens. However, through sources demonstrated in
this essay North Korea has been shown to be engaging in black markets across
the globe, including high quality currency counterfeiting, arms dealing and
drug production and trafficking. North Korea’s goal of obtaining nuclear
weaponry as a means of deterrent against “imperialist” invasion
has lead to numerous sanctions imposed by the United Nations in an attempt to
obstruct these ambitions. As a result, North Korea has pursued illicit means of
gaining funds for their nuclear program, namely the black market. Within
the country itself, there has been a growing lack of trust of its citizens towards the
state’s Public Distribution System in accommodating for their welfare. A
nationwide famine which occurred in the mid to late 90s left the country
destitute with millions dying of starvation. Following this, catastrophe black markets have emerged throughout the country offering a wide
range of products previously unavailable through the state’s rationing system.
Although North Korea maintains its claim to be a functioning communist state,
this paper aims to dispute this through demonstrating the rise of the country’s
participation in both internal and external commercial black markets. This
paper consists of an introduction giving a brief overview of the paper’s aims
and the divergence of regime rhetoric compared to reality. The following
section outlines North Korea’s emergence as a sovereign state, the ideologies
which define this regime; then to the difficulties the country has faced
throughout the 20th century and the measures (sanctioned or otherwise) taken to
address them. The final section before the conclusion addresses how North Korea
has come to depend on Black Markets as a means of financially supporting
itself. This is both in relation to its citizens who depend on black markets
for day to day living, as well as the regime which has used international black
markets to fund the ambitions of the military state.