2013/12/01 by Ronald Wintrobe · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies #Asian Industrial and Economic Development
paper · doi:10.1515/peps-2013-0036
openalex publication_date 2013/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract In this paper I apply the model of dictatorship, developed in my 1998 book, The Political Economy of Dictatorship , and elsewhere, to understand the workings of the North Korean regime. I argue that initially, under Kim Il Sung it was a Soviet-style regime but the shocks of the 1990s – the fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, the capitalist turn of China, the economic takeoff of South Korea and the succession crisis caused by Kim Il Sung’s death threatened the stability of that regime. Kim Jong Il shored up the regime by marrying it to the military. However, military rule is typically unstable. Kim Jong Il resolved this paradox essentially by militarizing the entire society. This is the distinctive feature of the regime. I analyze the stability of that regime, and ask whether engagement or isolation is the best way for the rest of the world to deal with North Korea.