Using Samir Aamin’s déconnexion theory to overcome the “irrational dead-end”: an alternative perspective on North Korea’s recent economic opening strategy

Abstract

While North Korea embarked on a gradual reform and opening program almost 30 years ago, the levels of economic cooperation with the outside world is still very low. While many scholars tend to explain these low levels by Pyongyang’s alleged “autarkic” or “irrational” policies, we rather argue that a shift of perspective is needed to try to understand the DPRK economic policies better, past and present.