The Most Overlooked Story from North Korea’s Party Congress

Harry H. Sa

Security, Economics, North Korea

Strategic patience is failing.

North Korea’s Party Congress concluded after four days of nonstop drama. It’s everything we hoped for, and more: secrecy, pomp, nuclear weapons, and even the detainment and expulsion of BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. One announcement, however, was reported without much fanfare: Kim Jong-Un’s five-year economic plan. Admittedly, economic plans are not as thrilling as nuclear weapons and expulsion of Western journalists, but this could be the most underreported story thus far. Part of the reason is that when the announcement was made, it was devoid of any details or specifics. The other part is that economic progress just doesn’t seem very North Korean.

Many of us, particularly in the United States, have been conditioned to think of North Korea as a country stuck in a perpetual state of squalor and decrepitude. A mere mention tends to evoke images of a starving backwards people and retrogression. On the contrary, there is evidence that the opposite is happening. Thanks to the quiet progress of a nascent market economy, North Korea has been experiencing modest growth in recent years. Agricultural production is holding steady despite a drought in early 2015 and the level of defection to its southern neighbor has dropped. Of course, this is not to say that all is right in the Hermit Kingdom. Widespread malnutrition still persists and its economy has a long way to go. Regardless, any optimistic predictions of the North Korean economy should alarm Washington.