Earticle

It is very important to recognize North Korea objectively because North Korea is not simply a forein country to us. The achievements in the study of North Korea, which have rapidly expanded in quantity in the South Korean academic world, are estimated low up to now in their quality compared with their quantity. This is largely because the results of the study have not been accumulated systematically due to the Limitation of materials for the North Korea study, and to the variety and difference in its analytic viewpoints. Nevertheless, it is imperative that the North Korea study should not be given up. This study was carried out from above view point. The object of this study is, out of recognition that the fundamental to cause the change of North Korea is its economic system, to analyze the North Korean economic policy making factors and to examine the possibility of change in North Korean. In order for the object of this study to be carried out, (1) the analysis frame of North Korean economic policy has been provided, (2) the variables that have effect on North Korean economic policy making have been set up, and the effect of these variables on the change in North Korean economic policy has been examined, (3) the North Korean economic policy making process has been analyzed, and its features and its possibility of change have been examined. As the result of this study it has been concluded that the typical feature of the North Korean economic system is at once a mobilization economic system closely related to ideo- logy and a closed economic system based on internally-pointed development strategy. But the North Korean economic policy has considerably changed compared with its other fields, according to the achievement degress of its planned economic goal, and to the necessity both internal and external. The trend is expected to continue. Aud this is believed to be the fundamental cause of change in the North Korean regime.