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China-Japan-Koreas |
Welcome to capitalism, North Korean comrades |
2004-12-14 |
![]() But collapse of the Soviet Union made clear that claims of self-sufficiency were unfounded. From 1991, the North Korean economy went into free fall. Throughout 1991-99, the gross national product (GNP) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) nearly halved. The situation became unbearable in 1996, when the country was struck by a famine that took, by the best available estimates, about 600,000 lives. The famine could have been prevented by a Chinese-style agricultural reform, but this option was politically impossible: such a reform would undermine the government's ability to control the populace. The control on daily lives was lost anyway. What we have seen in North Korea over the past 10 years can be best described as collapse of what used to be rigid Stalinism from below. In the Soviet Union of the late 1950s and in China of the late 1970s, Stalinism-Maoism was dismantled from above, through a chain of deliberate reforms planned and implemented by the government. In North Korea the same thing happened, but the system disintegrated from below, despite weak and ineffectual attempts to keep it intact. |
Posted by:tipper |
#2 Indeed, phil_b - there was some excellent commentary and it bodes well for something less terrible than a self-imposed genocide. Fred - that is one awesome graphic! Of course, it prolly sez something about killing the Imperialist Running Dogs with Songun Spirit and Juicy Juche (10% real fruit juche!), but it's still a killer image, heh. |
Posted by: .com 2004-12-14 2:32:56 PM |
#1 Interesting article re yesterday's discussion on how long it will take to fix Nork post Kimmie. The article says they already have bottom up capitalism and it only took a few years to re-establish. |
Posted by: phil_b 2004-12-14 2:29:19 PM |