Research Reports
The Real State of North Korean Agriculture and Rural Areas, and the Direction of Assistance - Centering Around Cooperative Farms -
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AuthorKim, Younghoon
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Publication Date2009.10.01
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Original
This research has been conducted for two purposes. The main purpose is to grasp the actual circumstances of North Korean agriculture and rural society through cooperative farms. The ancillary purpose is to suggest appropriate agricultural cooperation projects in accordance with North Korea policy.
We divided the main contents into four parts. The first part shows general features of North Korea's farm management system and structure of cooperative farms. A cooperative farm is a basic organization producing agricultural products and forms the basis of rural life. This part consists of the process of land reform and agricultural collectivization, farm management system, and the structure of cooperative farms, state farms, and general farms.
The second part deals with the features of cooperative farms that appear in a formal system. The main contents are the organization of the cooperative farm management committee, farm management system, production organization, the actual conditions of work groups and sub-work groups in cooperative farms. The main information contains the procurement of agricultural inputs, annual agricultural production and planning, rural production activities, distribution of products, and purchasing and distribution of agricultural products. In addition, utilization of the means of production and property rights are investigated. All these information are based on existing documents and laws of North Korea.
The third part presents the changes in cooperative farms and rural community after the food crisis in the mid-1990s. This part was investigated through interviews with North Korean defectors, researchers, and experts working at assistance organizations for North Koreans. We tried to find the changes that appeared in the rural society due to the weakening economy and fortified government control. The major changes are the failure of reform taken by the North Korean government, the collapse of governmental procurement system, weakening of cooperative farms’ management function, empowered production organization of cooperative farms, and expansion of private economy in rural areas.
The last part suggests North Korea’s agricultural and rural issues, and the direction for inter-Korean agricultural cooperation was sought. A few feasible agricultural cooperation projects and its effects were introduced as measures to seek a desirable cooperation model between the South and the North.
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