SPA Session: Lowest Official Growth Rate in Decades

Author(s)

Rüdiger Frank

Abstract

In his analysis of the documents of North Korea’s 2021 parliamentary session, Prof. Frank points at a historically low projected growth rate for 2021 and equally modest targets even for sectors that were given top priority by the North Korean leader just days before during the 8th Party Congress.
He concludes that North Korea finds itself in deep economic difficulties. This is likely to lead to even closer economic cooperation with China in 2021, greater vigilance against domestic ideological deviations, and increased potential for a worsening humanitarian situation. It remains unclear, however, whether this economic stress will also make North Korea more open to talks with South Korea, the United States and Japan.

Organisation(s)

Department of East Asian Studies

Journal

38 North

Publication date

01-2021

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

502027 Political economy

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/ecedadca-33f3-4965-8a8a-c9e49744e63e