Development of External Economic Relations
over Seven Decades

The  70-year-long  history  of  the  Workers’  Party  of  Korea  founded  by  President Kim Il Sung  and  led  by  Chairman Kim Jong Il is a glorious history in which the DPRK’s external economic relations have been developed along the road of independence under the banner of the immortal Juche idea.

After Korea’s liberation (August 15, 1945) the foreign trade of the country was nationalized along with its major industries and a legal system for it was established under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership, making a significant contribution to the development of the national economy. Throughout the periods for post-war rehabilitation, socialist industrialization and construction of an independent national economy, up to the present era of the knowledge-based economy, the government has maintained close economic ties with many countries the world over and briskly conducted external economic activities.

Based on the line of building an independent national economy which was advanced by Kim Il Sung for the first time in the nation’s history, it has striven to expand and develop external economic relations on the principle of independence.

In the 1960s it adhered to the stand that only when every nation-state develops external economic relations by relying on its solid economic foundations and its external economic relations contribute to the development of the national economy, it is possible to thoroughly defend the sovereignty of the country and satisfy the independent and creative demands of the working people; it made strenuous efforts to apply the principles of complete equality and mutual benefit in its external economic relations.

It consistently expressed the principled stand that only when all countries champion independence in international economic relations and join hands to fight against the economic domination and subordination by big powers, it is possible to set up a new international economic order and establish relations of complete equality and mutual benefit between countries; it strengthened south-south cooperation with developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America while playing an active role in the non-aligned movement to counter the high-handedness and arbitrariness of big powers in the international arena.

Thanks to the struggle of developing countries the old international economic order was replaced by a new one and south-south cooperation between developing countries was promoted on the principles of complete equality and mutual benefit.

While expanding and developing economic relations with socialist countries, the government endeavoured to gain access to international markets so as to make its external economic relations multilateral and diversified.

In the 1970s-1990s it concluded trade agreements with and set up trade missions in over 130 countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Pakistan in South East Asia; Iran, Syria and Yemen in the Middle East; Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Zimbabwe in Africa; and Switzerland, Germany and Sweden in Europe, to speak nothing of its neighbours.

In this period, on Kim Il Sung’s instructions that a powerful fleet for marine transport should be organized to suit the geopolitical features of Korea surrounded on three sides by sea, merchant vessels were built in large numbers to open up new routes to international markets.

On the basis of the world-startling successes gained in every field of the national economy the government radically increased the export of processed goods including machinery and imported materials needed in economic construction, boosting its international investment.

At that time the yearly amount of cargo traffic through major ports in the DPRK reached the highest level in Asia.

In the 1970s-1980s the government promoted economic cooperation with developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and gave material assistance and moral support to them. It assisted them in building factories, schools, research institutes, halls of culture and hospitals, which were urgently needed in their economic and cultural development and improvement of the people’s livelihood, and sent colossal amounts of steel, cement, trucks, bulldozers, excavators, machine-tools, cloth and medicine.

Guinea Kim Il Sung Agricultural Science Institute, party congress hall in Burundi, schoolchildren’s palace in Sudan, female and children’s costume factory in Mauritania and Pemba Stadium in Tanzania were built by the investment from the government of the DPRK.

It sent competent scientists, technicians and specialists to developing countries to give economic and technical assistance in such fields as industry, agriculture, science, education, culture, public health and sports. They assisted in construction of the Presidential Palace in Madagascar, party congress hall in Tanzania, memorial tower in Burkina Faso, corn processing plant in Rwanda, building materials factory in Angola, smeltery in Uganda, irrigation facilities in Rwanda and Zambia, farm implements repair shop in Guyana, Akaki pump factory in Ethiopia and other public buildings, establishments, memorials and factories.

In 1990s-2000s the government established diplomatic relations with many countries in Eastern and Western Europe to expand its scope of foreign trade. It also developed ties with several economic blocs including major international trade organizations and ASEAN so as to further strengthen bilateral, regional and inter-regional trade and investment relations and cooperation.

Thanks to its positive foreign policy, economic cooperation and sci-tech exchanges with neighboring countries including Russia have been expanded, and the number of equity and contractual joint ventures established in the country with foreign investors has increased to more than a few hundreds. Many Korean technicians and specialists took part in the major projects of other countries so as to develop their country’s external economic relations.

In 2013 the government adopted measures to make its external economic relations multilateral and diversified in order to promote cooperation with all the countries that respect its sovereignty–establishing scores of economic development zones in several parts of the country and actively accepting investment from foreign countries.

Today many foreign investors are responding positively to the government’s investment policy.

The government will, in the future, too, expand and develop its external economic relations with all the countries that respect its sovereignty on the principles of independence, friendship, complete equality and mutual benefit.