North Korea and Economic Integration in East Asia

Throughout North Korea’s history, it has regarded external relations with suspicion and as a potential threat to its regime. With North Korea working towards denuclearization, there is now hope for an economic opening. This book examines the external economic strategies that North Korea may consider for its reforms and development, which are related to the East Asian economic integration process.

This book emphasizes that considering theoretical factors as well as conditions of the North Korean economy, economic opening and integration should have high priority, anteceding or at least being parallel to economic reforms and transformation. Also, among various alternative strategies for achieving the goal of economic reform and development based on economic opening, the utilization of East Asian regional economic integration framework would be the best option for North Korea, because this framework can provide an opportunity for North Korea to overcome structural problems in its external economic relations and to circumvent political conflicts, thus leading to a smoother rapprochement towards economic opening.

This book is timely as it shows how a new economic recovery strategy on the Korean Peninsula may be accomplished.

Yeongseop Rhee is Professor at Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea. He was formerly Research Fellow at Korea Development Institute and non-resident Fellow at Brookings Institution. He is also co-author of Asian Monetary Integration: Coping with a New Monetary Order after the Global Crisis (2013) and Overcoming Financial Crises: The Korean Experience (2012).

Patrick Messerlin is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Sciences Po Paris, and Chairman of European Centre for International Political Economy, Belgium. He is co-author of Potential Benefits of an Australian-EU Free Trade Agreement: Key Issues and Options (2018) and Trade for Development (2014) and author of Measuring the Costs of Protection in Europe: European Commercial Policy in the 2000s (2001).