Shifting determinants of socioeconomic status in North Korea: The impact of marketisation

Abstract

Since the collapse of its socialist command economy in the mid-1990s, North Korea has experienced marketization from below. Has bottom-up marketization also affected the factors that determine subjective perceptions of socioeconomic status in North Korea? Although many studies have investigated various recent changes in North Korea, they often suffer from a lack of solid empirical research based on reliable data. In this paper, we theorize that political factors, which are typically most important in a socialist society, were critical in determining socioeconomic status during the early years of marketization, but economic factors have played an increasingly important role in the more mature stages of marketization. To test our theory, we use a survey of 1,309 North Korean defectors and in-depth interviews with 73 defectors. The results confirm that the key determinants of subjective socioeconomic status have shifted from political factors to market-related elements in contemporary North Korean society.