To what extent has North Korea achieved Economic Liberalisation?

North Korea has a communist style of governance, and the role of market allocation schemes is limited. Basically, the country has a centrally planned economy with a total GDP of nearly 20 billion USD. It was expected to reach 21.24 USD billion by the end of 2023 and 25.06 USD billion in 2024. Comparably, North Korea’s GDP is 57 times smaller than that of South Korea’s GDP. The Gross Value Added (GVA) of the country is dominated by agriculture, followed by the manufacturing and construction sectors. North Korea had a similar GDP to its neighbour from the time of the Korean War until of mid-1970s. However, estimating the isolated nation’s GDP is actually a difficult task because of the lack of availability of data.