The economic history of the
People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK)

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Socialist Korea Develops Light Industry
Korean News Service, People’s Weekly World, 1 July 1995. In the last five years, many factories and workshops were built and existing factories were rebuit and expanded along modern lines. The government is increasing investment in light industry every year.
Campaign To Stop The Famine In North Korea—Fact Sheet
From Arm the Spriit, 2 October 1997. Food rations in north Korea are at near-starvation levels following 2 years of devastating floods. The government provides 100 grams per person daily (half a bowl of rice). Even at these minimal levels, north Korea is expected to exhaust its food supplies by this summer and has made an urgent appeal to the international community for immediate food aid.
DPRK has 12 Mil. Barrels of Oil Reserves in Western Sea: Expert
The People’s Korea, 2 December 1998. North Korea has an estimated reserve of 155 million tons (12 million barrels) in offshore oil fields in its Western sea area. The monthly Shin Dong-A quoting a Korean-American expert.
North’s economy contracts for 9th straight year
Asia Pulse/Yonhap, Asia Times, 27 August 1999. North Korea’s economy, based on actual gross domestic product (GDP), dipped 1.1 percent last year after posting negative growth of 6.8 percent in 1997. Recovery in farm products and fisheries and better output in the manufacturing sector were attributed to last year’s relative improvement
As Firms Court N. Korea, Money Isn’t Only Motive
By Doug Struck, Washington Post, Friday 10 November 2000. One of the first outside business people to have slipped inside the DPRK is an unlikely figure: the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Many of the businessmen seeking entry into North Korea, which is beginning to emerge from its isolationist shell, are spurred by a patriotic desire to mend the rift that split North and South Korea 55 years ago.
Local factories in North Korea
Interview by staff reporter, Joon Ang Ilbo, 14 March 2002. An excerpt from and inteview by Tong-il Hankuk (Unified Korea) of a North Korean who served in the North’s General Bureau for Local Industry before defecting to the South. Relation of central planning and local implementation.