The Segmented Marketization of North Korea and Its Sociopolitical Implications

In this article I reassess North Korean marketization using the concept of segmentation. Marketization is the core mechanism by which the socialist system is transformed, yet it has occurred at the city/county level in a segmented fashion, thus inhibiting its wider influence. In North Korea, the system of economic regional self-sufficiency was introduced in the 1960s as a strategy to be implemented in case of war, and it ultimately began operating when North Korea faced a national emergency in the 1990s. This accelerated the development of a segmented market system, and marketization has been localized, meaning that interregional markets and integrated market exchange have remained largely unrealized. The segmented nature of marketization has meant that the sociopolitical effects of markets have not been as large as expected.