북한의 농민시장과 개혁ㆍ개방

A Study on People’s Market and the Reform in North Korea

This article is an attempt to view the North Korean reform and opening through researching people’s market(‘nongmin’ market) emerging as an important sphere in North Korea recently. I first reviewed the theoretical discussions concerning how to explain people’s market in the socialist system, next, traced the historical and social contexts of its development. Finally, I analyzed the underlying social structural changes occurred by the changes of people’s market. As the economic difficulties were getting more serious in North Korea, people’s market was extended more and more. North Korean authorities kept a silence about these phenomenon. However, as the economy has been restored, the authorities strengthened the control on people’s market again. Faced with the demand of the reform and the open door, North Korea has adhered ‘Socialism of Our style’, which is the empirical and creative way combined ‘self-reliance’ with ‘practicality’ learned from the experiences in China, Vietnam, even Russia and East Europe.