A View through the Trade Window: North Korean Exports as an Indicator of Economic Capabilities
This study uses detailed information on Democratic People's Republic of Korea exports to assess the state of its indigenous industrial (civilian‐use) capability. The view through the trade window is sobering. We find that most North Korean exports reflect the capabilities of foreign investors a...
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Published in | World economy Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 1 - 20 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.01.2015
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | This study uses detailed information on Democratic People's Republic of Korea exports to assess the state of its indigenous industrial (civilian‐use) capability. The view through the trade window is sobering. We find that most North Korean exports reflect the capabilities of foreign investors and do not reflect the factor abundance of North Korea other than its mineral endowments. While some capability emerged in aquaculture and export processing, there is little evidence of indigenous manufacturing activity that meets international standards. Moreover, most trade is facilitated either at the border or through foreign companies or special cooperative programmes. This lack of domestic trading experience indicates a low capability for finding and serving foreign markets. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-74LD1D56-3 istex:464462EDE3EE5DF688794AD1C9692080B9031582 ArticleID:TWEC12254 Central Universities' Special Funds - No. CXTD5-01 This study has benefited from insightful comments from two anonymous referees. We thank Fariha Kamal and Jeong Eun Shin for research assistance. We also gratefully acknowledge valuable assistance and translation from Changyong Choi. Ran Jing is grateful to the Central Universities’ Special Funds for Fundamental Research at UIBE (Contract # CXTD5‐01) for support. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0378-5920 1467-9701 |
DOI: | 10.1111/twec.12254 |