The disappearance of the \u2018June 28th Policy\u2019 from public discourse inside North Korea in recent weeks has led to the suggestion in some quarters that the policy has been abandoned completely.<\/p>\n
However, there is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that such comments are premature. As noted by Yonhap in an article yesterday, recent days have seen multiple uses of phrases including \u201cnew management method\u201d in the North Korean media, lending weight to the suggestion that a number of new economic measures have already been put into practice.<\/p>\n
For example, last week on the 7th, state domestic and international radio broadcaster Chosun Central Broadcast ran a recording of a meeting of forestry workers at the People\u2019s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
During the event, which was attended by high regime officials including Cabinet Prime Minister Choi Young Rim, the manager of a wooden goods manufacturer in Hamheung declared, \u201cI will keep updating our industrial strategy and tactics in accordance with the demands of the new economic management method and give our management substance in order that we may secure the greatest possible profit and raise the productivity of investment.\u201d <\/p>\n
The words raise the question of whether factories such as that of the manager in question are actually acting autonomously in terms of management decisions, rather than simply taking orders from agencies higher up the food chain. If so, it would imply the implementation of new economic rules.<\/p>\n
On a similar note, a November 9th article carried as part of a series by the Chongryon publication Choson Shinbo under the title \u2018The Road to Our-style Economic Revival\u2019 noted the introduction of a \u201cnew management method\u201d in a piece on how Pyongyang\u2019s No.1 Department Store has been changing in order to improve customer service.<\/p>\n
Choson Shinbo has a history of reporting North Korean economic changes first, including the July 1st Economic Management Improvement Measures of 2001, making it one outlet for North Korea news worth keeping an eye on.<\/p>\n
Reviewing the anecdotal evidence for the introduction of new measures, Cho Bong Hyun of Industrial Bank of Korea\u2019s research arm told Yonhap, \u201cThe phrase \u2018new economic management method\u2019 shows that the new economic management measures that they never officially revealed have already been implemented. If their confidence in the new economic system grows, they will doubtless begin to present them as the achievements of Kim Jong Eun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The disappearance of the \u2018June 28th Policy\u2019 from public discourse inside North Korea in recent weeks has led to the suggestion in some quarters that the policy has been abandoned completely. However, there is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that such comments are premature. As noted by Yonhap in an article yesterday, recent days have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":21867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n