해방 직후 북한의 ‘민주상업’ 실시와 개인상인의 대응

Abstract

This study investigates the establishment of the North Korean socialist commerce system from 1945 to 1950. Most scholarship on North Korea characterizes the early years of the North Korean commerce system as a mere state apparatus to suppress the capitalist economy and private enterprises. Moving away from this conventional view, this study highlights the conflict relations between the state (i.e. State-owned enterprises and the Consumer’s Union) and the market (private merchants). Immediately after liberation, North Korea transformed the colonial-capitalist economy into a socialist economy as its key site of North Korea’s democratic reforms. This new socialist commerce established in this period became an archetype of North Korea’s commerce up until the 1990s. Thus, the analysis of the restructuring of the North Korean socialist commerce system in the early years offers an avenue to grasp the causes in the failure of North Korean commerce after the ‘Arduous March,’ 1994-1999, and the historical origins of Changmadang. This study utilizes various North Korean periodicals that were rarely used by scholars, such as Consumers’ Union and Democratic Commerce as well as reports on North Korean Commerce from the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Through analyzing various periodicals, this study demonstrates how the state suppressed private merchants, yet at the same time, the state mobilized them to facilitate undeveloped circulation networks. For Instance, the North Korean state incorporated the circulation networks of the private sector into the state commerce system by abolishing large-size business owners, but by conniving small merchants to maintain product/goods circulation and distribution networks. The unofficial role of Farmer’s markets from the 1950s to the 1990s indicates how private merchants have played the role of a ‘safety belt’ to allow the citizens to secure minimum livelihood and to keep the North Korean state from a complete economic breakdown. Therefore, this study will suggest an answer to the perplexing question-why has the North Korean economy not collapsed?-through examining the role of small merchants and the market within the North Korean socialist economic structure.