In
Report says North Korean reforms spread,
Seoul's JoongAng Ilbo
daily looks at a paper from the South's Unification Ministry
and the Korea Institute of National Unification, a government think
tank: following and because of economic liberalization begun in
July, 2002, prices and wages in the DPRK have risen sharply, grain
is the only item still rationed, and the currency has been
devalued.
This intriguing sentence appears, without further detail:
According to the report, students at Kim Il Sung
University are studying with textbooks that cover market
principles, starting with the laws of supply and
demand.
Which textbooks would those be?
Austrian
economic texts (
here is an
historical summary, the previous link concentrates on the
distinctive theoretical tenets of the Austrian School) sparked
eastern Europe's liberation from Soviet Communism. The name
Friedrich von Hayek was
frequently
heard, especially
The Road to Serfdom.
Wholesale stores and 24-hour convenience shops have
opened in the country's larger cities, catering to wealthier
individuals, the report said. Although it is still forbidden for
individuals to own and operate shops, some individuals are running
illicit beer bars, karaoke clubs and computer cafes, the report
said.
The country's economy grew 1.8 percent in 2003, but wholesale and
retail businesses have seen 9.8-percent growth, the report
said.
With the
shipping
restrictions Japan imposed on the North (requiring insurance
certificates),
China
forcing the DPRK's casino money machine to close, and the
Japanese halting imports of North Korean chickens because of the
avian flu outbreak (
Japan stops poultry imports from North Korea), the North is
racing to avoid economic crackup, and the same forces which
impelled eastern and central Europe (which includes Russia) towards
economic liberalization, are influencing the DPRK.
UPDATE: Tom Palmer at
North Korean
Karaoke? emailed the reporter at the
JoonAng Daily, for
more information, and perhaps to find out which textbooks the Kim
Il Sung University students use. He's with the new kid on the
block, the
Cato Institute and
also with oldtimers the
Foundation
for Economic Education and back before the collapse of Soviet
Communism, he 'worked to get Paul Heyne's wonderful book
The
Economic Way of Thinking translated and published in Russian,
Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, and Albanian.'