North Korea Philosophy and Foreign Policy - Case Study Example

North Korea Case Report Introduction It is the dream of every country to improve her politics of globalization. Governments have been challenged to have the capability of controlling the meaningless scrambles on resources and accumulated profits. Collective actions by different governments are the main means of controlling unhealthy competition and stopping irrational conducts of unsure stability. Several policy making institution and global tools have been put in place to ensure better politics of globalization. Such institutions and tools include; the G-20, G-Zero, the World Trade Organization, the Beijing Consensus and the United Nations. With the support of the named institutions, governments can collectively come up with a balance in there social programs competition so as to encourage social innovation and confidence. Globalization does not need plain trade-offs between social protection and competition. The ability of the respective governments as well as global institutions to take on collective actions has so far been underestimated to the extent that politics of globalization has to be reviewed and refurbished. This applies to the North Korean politics of globalization which has been experiencing both ups and downs (Carlin and Joel 102). North Korea Philosophy/Foreign Policy Considering the domestic political economy of North Korea, the leadership of the country has in the past been the greatest worry to its economic reforms. Its foreign policy has in many ways ended up on the wrong side of the international bodies and other countries. A good example is the nuclear issue that created a hostile international environment working against its internal reforms. However, this should not be an excuse for the country not to have better reforms in relation to globalization. The domestic dynamics have a bigger role to play. The politics and leaders of North Korea have openly returned to an approach that is more controlled to economic policy. The changes in these policies have had significant implications on the North Korean strategies and intentions of economic commitment. Economic inducements like the joining the international financial institutions, sanctions lifting or engaging in regional cooperation that are more –formalized have not really worked out as most stakeholders wished it could. The current regime is in favor of targeted transfers that are to the advantage of the leaders. The transfers involve; heavy shipments of oil, direct cash payments and food aids (Noland and Gordon 90). This form of globalization can be considered as being hyperglobalists. As the economy of North Korea is falling in most of the sectors, the leaders are the ones left to benefit. This has resulted to individual leaders being more powerful than the state. North Korea has also taken its economic issues globally instead of solving them internally. It has concentrated on the nuclear issue forgetting its internal systems of trade and investment. Government programs have also failed leading to the state to depend and invest more in corporations. Some of the reforms that were meant to be effected ended up decriminalizing the activities in the market as a result of an increased control of the market by the leaders. This also led to the rise of cooperative reforms like the streaming of work-team sizes and continuation of enterprises owned by leaders. There has been an increase in the general appeals for economic inducements compared to the past (Toloraya 89). In addition, the reform prospects aimed at moderating the approach of the nation towards engagement approach has come out as being a big illusion. This is a contradiction to the investment and trade evolution in North Korea. In addition to the nuclear crisis and the anti-reformists turn recently, North Korea has become an open economy. The country has also tried to opened up trade and change its geographical composition. The Tokyo’s embargo led to the collapse of the trade between Japan and North Korea. The nuclear crisis on the other hand led to the trade between North Korean and Europe to stagnate. At the same time, trade relations and aids from South Korea failed after Lee Myung-bak came to power. This was a clear indication that the foreign policy of Northern Korea had led to more conflicts with the international world instead of creating corporations. On the positive side, North Korea’s relation with China has improved relatively and absolutely. The country has also reached out to other partners who are not a threat when it comes to sanctions risks and also those who have the same interest in missile and nuclear like Egypt, Syria and Iran (Haggard and Marcus 67) The changes in patterns of trade have had a positive implication to international bodies such as the United Nations sanctions as well as other countries like the United States. However, the changing patterns have made it even more difficult for the country to reach out for sanction strategies that are more effective. The economic reforms for North Korea are viewed as to be contributing to an increased social inequality and differentiation. There have been concerns as to whether the serving regime is in a position to manage the changes taking place internally at the same time deal with external issues facing the country like nuclear weapons diplomatic tension and its relationship with South Korea. The Social and Political structure of North Korea has assumed a SPG perspective. The winners or losers in its economy are mainly determined by this structure. The reforms are in such away that the beneficiaries are those with ‘god fathers’. The structure can also be considered as being a Marxian political economy as the few opportunities available are always taken by the leaders who make the best of them and remain successful while the common man is left to feel the pinch of the economy (Noland 80). G-Zero World and the Beijing Consensus North Korean issue on nuclear substance formed a major topic of discussion in the G-Zero. Most political and economic conflicts find their way to the G-Zero as in its heights evolves a solution or a response in both regional and sub-regional levels. However, not everything before the G-Zero had solutions especially on the global stage. The issue of nuclear substances proved to be one of the most delicate issues. The G-Zero admitted to having very limited capacity thus could not come up with a regime that was based on nuclear nonproliferation. No matter the situation in which Iran and North Korea were going through, nothing could stop them from engaging in nuclear activities. North Korea had its way as other international bodies such as the G-20 had to pledge not to stop the G-Zero from its geo-economic hue so as to avoid more conflicts coming up (Haggard and Marcus 89). The Beijing Consensus did not in any way go against North Korea considering the fact that they were completely uncertain about Pyongyang’s political showdown outcome. This situation left North Korea to be a thorn. Beijing had considered the fact that it was not wise to make any move which would eventually disappoint North Korea at the time when there were possibilities of a regime change in the country. North Korea responded to this situation by threatening that in a situation where it failed in her transition and its incoming regime collapsed, then China and the United States would end up in a totally different position considering the alarming security challenges in the region (Toloraya 146). The above situation led to North Korea having a poor international relationship which eventually translated to its competitive disadvantage when it came to international and global market. North Korea broke more international trade links as compared to those it managed to make. However, North Korea responded to this crisis through coming up with working internal strategies. Following this response, its declining economy experienced an intense transformation. Local organs, households, military units and government offices all scrambled for the crucial commodities such as water and food. Through this, trade and barter were initiated and they eventually grew into new economic activities that were monetized. At that juncture, the markets started playing a more crucial role in the generation of income for the house hold and as a retail purchase source for food and other basic consumer goods. North Korea still continued to venture in the nuclear substances which contributed positively as a result of trade with other countries aligned to her (Noland and Gordon 143). Politics and Diasporic Groups Politics in North Korea has played a big role in the creation of a nation that is strong economically. This cuts a cross its leadership and military who both preach the nationalist concept and have come up with a number of ways of accomplishing it. Leadership in North Korea is for the concepts of self reliance and state socialism and has implemented this concept through a wide range of reforms. Through this, the country has managed to slowly reform from its crisis and opened up to new economic inducements. Politics in North Korea has also had great influence on the country’s economic relations. The political crisis resulted to North Korea being pushed into closer economic ties with trading partners such as China which had minimal political interests and sanctions. Through politics, North Korea also reorganized her economic relations externally so as to check on the already existing sanctions (Carlin and Joel 162). The diaspora group impacted the North Korean economy in several ways including; investing and trading flows by the many commerce diasporas, impact the balance of payment in North Korea by initiating fund transfers between families back at home and oversees settlers and lastly through labor market and human resources in North Korea. After the economic crisis in 2008, the government of North Korea came up with several measures to recover from that period. Some of the measures included; general market inspection so as to control the range and types of goods in the market with the aim of having markets that are more limited to farmers. Most markets traded in foodstuffs only. The government also came up with control price system through its market capitalism system. Works cited Carlin, Robert & Joel, Wit. North Korean Reform: Politics, Economics, and Security. Adelphi Paper No. 382. London: International Institute for Security Studies, 2006. Print Haggard, Stephan & Marcus, Noland, Forthcoming, Famine in North Korea Redux? Journal of Asian Economics Noland, Marcus & Gordon, Flake. ‘Opening Attempt: North Korea and the Rajin-Sonbong Free economic and Trade Zone. Journal of Asian Business 13, no. 2. (1997): 99-116 Noland, Marcus. Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the two Koreas. Washington: Institute for International Economics, 2000. Print. Toloraya, Georgy. North Korea Now: Will the Clock Be Turned Back? Washington: Brookings Institution, 2008. Print. Read More