In Memoriam Kyongje Yongu
Trump’s return to the White House has renewed an interest in reengaging North Korea, such as by offering economic incentives. That said, now seems good a time as ever to take a stroll through the tables of contents of the North Korean economic quarterly Kyongje Yongu (also transliterated Kyo’ngje Yo’ngu). To gauge the feasibility of the economic incentives option, there is value in first understanding Pyongyang’s views on its own economy and economic policy options. Although North Korea published its last volume of this important journal in late 2020, many of the issues addressed in its 64 years of publishing remain valid today.
With that in mind, 38 North has published translations of all Kyongje Yongu tables of contents from 2007 to 2020 and full-text translations of select articles from these volumes. These translations were done as part of 38 North’s project reviewing Kim Jong Un’s economic policy, which focused on the period from 2007, when Kim Jong Il started rolling back his reform-oriented measures through Kim Jong Un’s tenure.
Kyongje Yongu’s Significance: Kyongje Yongu was key to understanding the country’s current and future intentions toward the full breadth of economic policy issues–from ideological and theoretical issues to business management to specific industries–that were not addressed with the same level of detail in North Korean media. As such, Pyongyang’s decision to cease this publication has made it more difficult to understand the country’s thinking about important policy thinking, for example where the country stands on market-oriented initiatives, which Kim Jong Un implemented in earnest for years before the rollbacks seen since the pandemic. The publication’s termination in late 2020 was all the more unfortunate, missing the critical five-year plan period announced at the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021. Given its track record, the journal would very likely have explained North Korea’s economic policy direction in fuller detail and possibly may have shed some light on tensions within the regime over how to best grow the economy.