북한의 세금제도 폐지와 재도입 가능성에 관한 연구

Abstract

North Korea asserts that it is the only ‘tax-free country’ in the world. This study examines the process of tax abolition in North Korea, and examines whether North Korea can still be said to have no tax system and whether it is possible to withdraw its assertion and reintroduce a tax system suitable for market economy (“market-based tax system”) in the future. As to the process of abolishing the taxes, the original legal documents of North Korea have been traced for the period from 1945, when liberated from Japan, to 1974 when the assertion was finally made. After the review on the current tax system focusing on the ‘Law on National Budget Revenue,’ tax-related articles published in Ro-Dong-Shin-Mun for 45 years from 1974 up to 2019 have been analyzed to assess the possibility of reintroduction of a market-based tax system. In addition, the ‘practical socialism’ concept adopted for the economic reform was discussed as a possible reasoning for any future tax reform. North Korea continued to abolish the taxes after national liberation, and on April 1, 1974, it declared a complete abolition of the tax system. However, if the revenues from the socialist economy, such as turn-over tax and profit from enterprise, can be viewed as a type of taxes, the abolition should not be regarded complete. North Korea politically abolished the tax system, but economically and functionally, there remains a quasi-tax system currently centered on the ‘Law on National Budget Revenue,’nevertheless disparate from a market-based tax system. If North Korea initiates the reintroduction of a market-based tax system, it would be possible with a‘practical socialist approach’that has been adopted for economic reform, rather than a retraction or shift of the current political position. The possibility of the reintroduction of a market-based tax system is confirmed empirically by the drastic reduction of the number of articles in Ro-Dong-Shin-Mun praising‘tax-free country’since the 2000s. Unlike previous studies focusing on tax matters related to foreign investment or Gaesong Industrial Complex, this study traced the process of tax abolition, discussed the outline of the current tax system, and finally analyzed the possibility of reintroduction of market-based tax system based on the articles of Ro-Dong-Shin-Mun and the approach of economic reform.