“If Kim Jong-un enters the North Korean economy and foreign capital, there will be a big change”

[세종=이데일리 원다연 기자] It has been argued that the North Korean economy will change significantly if foreign capital enters North Korea. Although North Korea’s industry is poor, there is a prospect that there is a possibility to grow into a technology-driven industry centering on the export processing industry and the information industry.

President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held an inter-Korean summit on the afternoon of April 27, 2018 at the Peace House in Panmunjom. Since then, discussions on inter-Korean economic cooperation have been underway, but there has been little progress so far as relations between the United States and the United States have stiffened. [고양=특별취재팀 방인권 이데일리 기자, 한국공동사진기자단]

According to the Korea Development Institute (KDI) on the 2nd, Lee Seok-ki, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Industry Research, said in KDI’s December North Korean Economy Review, that “if there is a structure in which funds such as foreign capital come in, there is a possibility that a considerable change will occur.” Forecast. Researcher Lee is considered an expert in North Korea’s industrial research sector, which remains largely unknown.

“The (North Korean) central government invests a certain amount of money and draws funds from other sources to create a model factory and do business as a market mechanism (I can see it). Let’s start.”

Researcher Lee believes that the North Korean core industry is still heavy and chemical industry, but the largest growth industries in foreign trade are mining and export light industry. He said, “The biggest growth industries in foreign trade are mining and underground resources rich in raw materials. If there were no restrictions on export light industry, sewing clothing such as non-anthracite would have become the number one export item by now.”

He continued, “Perhaps, considering the North Korean government’s fiscal investment ability and technology level, Chairman Kim Jong-un has a relatively high probability of achieving results compared to the heavy and chemical industry, which is difficult to achieve. It seems that they are putting in a lot of resources,” he explained.

Researcher Lee cited the informatization industry as another growth industry in North Korea. He analyzed that “North Korea’s informatization is mainly software, and rather than information devices, it can be said to be science and technology in a broader sense.”

At the same time, he predicted that a growth strategy centered on technology-driven industries, mainly for export processing and informatization industries, will continue.

“The export processing industry, centered on the light industry, has no choice but to become a foreign currency source for a considerable period of time, and we will catch up with some technology-intensive industries such as software,” Lee said.

“It is difficult to predict how long the labor-based processing industry will continue,” he said. “If you have already been in the processing industry for 20 to 30 years, the period you can make money through this will be getting shorter.”