Pyongyang has what it wants
By Alexander Acimovic
Dec 14, 2012
Since the succession of Kim Jong-eun last December, many observers and analysts of North Korea have speculated on the likelihood of the Kim regime pursuing economic reform and opening, possibly along the lines of the Chinese reforms initiated in the late 1970s by Deng Xiaoping.
The implication of much of this speculation has been that, if pursued, the two processes of reform and opening up will be pursued together. Unfortunately for the majority of North Koreans, the history of the dynasty and the actions so far taken under Kim Jong-eun all indicate that if economic reforms are attempted, they will likely be designed to rejuvenate control by the state rather than to loosen it, and that the regime sees opening North Korea to the outside world as diametrically opposed to the complex system of political repression by which it survives, and something it will avoid at all costs.
Several policy changes initiated during the past year bear the stamp of intentions to retrench the existing system: