A Study on the Anti-Marketization Discourse in North Korea in the Early Marketization (the 1990s~the early 2000s)

Since the beginning of marketization in the 1990s, the North Korean authorities have pursued market-friendly policies in limited terms. However, contrary to this policy direction, North Korea produced and disseminated anti-market and anti-reform discourse. This study examines the contradictory coexistence of North Korean policies and discourses in the 1990s. Basically, it is necessary to pay attention to the strategic aspects for achieving political and economic goals. The anti-marketing discourse has the following characteristics. First, it has the characteristics of a struggle against marketization discourse that is generated and developed with the progress of marketization, and the struggle of the ruling class to prevent the marketization discourse from becoming the dominant discourse. Second, it is the pursuit of marketization in which groups, not individuals, take the lead. Anti-marketization discourse has the character of anti- marketization discourse of individualism rather than anti-market. Third, it has the character of a check against open marketization, that is, it is not anti-market but anti-‘open’ marketization discourse.