Introduction

North Korea convened the 3rd Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on April 20, 2018. At the meeting, North Korea declared the “great victory of the line of simultaneous development of economic construction and building of nuclear force” and adopted a new “national strategic line of concentrating of all efforts on socialist economic construction.” Five years earlier, Chairman Kim Jong-un had adopted the “Byongjin strategic line of simultaneously pursuing economic power and nuclear capability” at the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on March 31, 2013.

At the core of the strategic line of concentrating on building a socialist economy put forward by North Korea is “prioritizing economic work in the overall work of the party and the state, tapping all human, material and technical potentials of the country for economic development.”

In adopting such a new economy-centric strategic line, North Korea cites changes in the environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula. Chairman Kim Jong-un said, “the overall situation is rapidly changing in favor of the Korean revolution thanks to the DPRK''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''s proactive action and efforts after the declaration of completing the state nuclear force last year,” informing that “a fresh climate of d étente and peace is being created on the Korean peninsula and the region and dramatic changes are being made in the international political landscape.”2 Such changes in circumstances have enabled North Korea to build a powerful socialist economy by mobilizing its human and material resources and focusing all power on the struggle to dramatically improve people’s lives. The atmosphere of détente created by inter-Korean cooperation and US-North Korea nuclear talks served as a background to the change in North Korea’s national strategic line.

* This article is part of 2019 The DPRK Economic Outlook

For more, please refer to the attached file.