The political economy of economic reform in North Korea

For over 10 years, North Korea has undergone a severe economic crisis, including food shortages, which has inflicted great suffering upon the North Korean people. Given such dire realities, it is beyond all doubt that the North Korean government should actively carry out comprehensive economic reforms as quickly as possible which aim to transform North Korea's present inefficient socialist planned economic system into a market economic system. Many argue that such reforms would give rise to successful economic growth in North Korea, which could enhance the legitimacy of the North Korean regime. Yet, the North Korean regime has consistently avoided implementing economic reforms, even though it has had a number of opportunities to do so. The July 1st reforms, which were introduced in 2002, have been half-hearted and inconsistently applied. This then raises an important question: Why has the North Korean government avoided adopting comprehensive economic reforms? In other words, what is the crucial barrier that has hindered North Korea's implementation of economic reforms? This article pinpoints North Korea's unique political system—i.e. its monolithic system of political control and policy making which exhibits the highest level of power concentration in one individual among all political systems—as the biggest barrier to economic reforms. No doubt North Korea desperately needs comprehensive economic reforms, in light of its economic crisis and food shortages. Nonetheless, the current North Korean regime has avoided adopting such reforms since they will undermine North Korea's monolithic system. In conclusion, North Korea's monolithic system has been the biggest obstacle to North Korea's economic reforms.     

道教文化中“北帝”的信仰及发展

北帝是道教的神灵,他最初只是酆都地狱的掌管者,是地位低下的鬼官。在南北朝末至唐代和北宋末年以后,北帝的信仰先后两次发展,北帝的地位得到了很大提升,围绕着北帝出现了新的庞大的神灵体系,北帝信仰也从一部分道士的信仰发展成为整个道教的主流信仰。而北帝信仰的第一次发展是众多道士推崇的结果;北帝信仰的第二次发展则与北宋朝廷的推动有关。     

陈宣帝太建北伐述论

陈氏太建北伐,系东晋南朝北伐史上的绝响之作。陈宣帝太建北伐的政治策略,是联周击齐;战争进程是先取江淮,而后强争黄淮交战于周。就南北对峙军事要地与江左国土安全关系论,太建北伐是内含战略防御与战略进攻的双重底蕴的。但陈氏起于南朝末造,经济武备均不及北朝,陈宣帝不能审此而失之烛远,穷兵远略将不可避免最终的失败。太建北伐始胜于周齐交争之隙,终败于北周统一北方之际,要在“合纵图齐”政略选择的失误;太建北伐最终归于失败,要在不仅折兵阃外再失淮泗,而影响亦及于南北统一的历史进程。     

近代北方药品供销体系的构建

进入近代以后 ,随着北方经济市场化与外向化进程的加快 ,其药品的供销在种类、规模、运营方式、运销路线等方面 ,都发生了一系列新的变化 ,从而使近代北方的药品供销体系得以逐步地构建起来。这既是北方医药事业不断发展的具体体现 ,也是北方经济近代化的重要组成部分     

The blowback of repression and the dynamics of North African radicalization

The narrative of the historic struggle against colonialism is subject to a high degree of political manipulation in North Africa. Myths, memories and symbols based on the struggle against colonial oppression, whether 'true' or not, provide a latent and continually relevant context for understanding and interpreting contemporary events. For both recent North African immigrants, and second, third and fourth generation immigrants to Europe, contemporary injustices and violence, whether perpetrated in Europe or in the Maghreb, are being understood in this historical colonial context. For some, these myths, memories and symbols may be the reason why they join a peaceful, democratic group to lobby for democracy and political transparency. For a minority of North Africans, these symbols of the past are invoked to justify a jihadist challenge to North African regimes and the West. Based on extensive interviews with North African activists and community leaders, this article will show how the collective memory of the abuse of power by the state, both during and after the colonial era, has created a latent mistrust of the West, especially of France. Political repression in North Africa since independence has created a rupture between what was expected from independence and the realities of political life, and North Africans often ascribe this disappointment to the inherently French character of the regimes which were in power during the 1950s and 1960s. North Africans also believe that this is reflected in the continuing active intervention on the part of the West to support these illiberal regimes in the face of democratic and popular challenges. The subsequent senses of injustice and disappointment, relating to the use and abuse of state power, continues to shape North African political mobilization and, worryingly, has created a latent basis for radicalization among North Africans living and working in Europe.     

北朝谱学与北朝政治

北朝谱学是北朝史学的一个重要组成部分,它较为突出地反映了史学与政治的密切关系。北朝谱学的发展从一个方面反映了北朝政治的特点和变化。反过来,谱学也成为建立门阀新秩序和门阀士族维护其各种特权的工具。北朝谱学一个很重要的特点是它与统治集团内部的政治斗争密切关联。同时,与南朝一样,北朝谱学在选官、婚姻等方面也发挥着重要作用,表现出这一时期谱学鲜明的政治倾向。     

NAFTA on the Brain: Why Creeping Integration Has Always Worked Better

This paper argues that since the completion of the NAFTA in the early 1990s, there has been too much focus on what governments in Ottawa, Washington, and Mexico City have or have not been doing to deepen North American integration. The NAFTA was an anomaly that obscures the larger history of incrementalism that has shaped North America's political economy. A focus on large, government-led integration projects like the NAFTA as a model for North American integration distracts from an examination of the many connections and processes taking place across borders every day. Security has become fully entrenched as a driving paradigm of North American relations. However, much of the activity in this domain and others is taking place at the bureaucratic, sub-state, and non-state levels rather than via active direction from national leadership. As scholars and analysts of North America, we would do well to move away from the NAFTA as a model for negotiating North America's future.     

Portrayals of Non-North Koreans in North Korean Textbooks and the Formation of National Identity

This article examines the portrayal of non-North Koreans in North Korean textbooks to assess the influences on the formation of North Korean identity, and how such identity formation is important in Kim Jeong-il's retention of power. This study not only looks closely at textual representations; it also examines how political and ideological changes in North Korea had a critical influence on these texts. The study encompasses both lexico-grammatical analysis and the analysis of textual and visual images, based on an examination of six North Korean language textbooks published from 1954 to 2000. It demonstrates that North Korean identity is defined through the portrayal of non-North Koreans, particularly enemy others. The portrayal of non-North Koreans facilitates the formation of a solid North Korean identity – an identity that entails serving their political leaders, remaining vigilant against threats to their country, and liberating South Koreans from poverty and oppression by America and its puppet states.     

承传与创新:略谈四邑侨乡与北美洲华人社区的通俗文化

论文将北美华人社区与广东珠三角侨乡在地方语言和通俗文化的传承与演变方面进行了比较研究。认为二者之间的跨越太平洋文化关系密切。广府的通俗文化一直是北美华人社区的主流文化;北美华人的生活文化意识也是珠三角侨乡的地方文化特色。两者互相影响,互动演变。不过,在20世纪50年代以后,这个互动的承传创新的关系出现了分化和演变。北美华人社区因为有大量新移民持续涌入而不断发展,而珠三角侨乡地区的侨乡文化形态,则逐渐失去了昔日的光芒需要转型,比如依赖过去的移民历史文化遗产来开发旅游经济。     

豫北地区二里头时代的地域间关系——以陶器资料分析为中心

本文在充分收集豫北地区二里头时代遗址资料的基础上,对遗址中出土的陶器构成的变化进行了详细的分析,并从多地域间交流的角度,对豫北地区和其他周边地区的动态关系进行了检讨,以确定豫北地区在中国初期国家形成过程中应有的地位。     

大连港的中转贸易(1907—1931)

由于优越的地理位置和自由港的贸易政策 ,190 7年后大连成了中国北方诸港与日本之间贸易的中转港。大连港的崛起 ,一方面加深了日本与北方诸港的贸易交往 ,另一方面也导致了大连与北方诸港间相互地位的调适。     

North Korea and Zimbabwe, 1978–1982: from the strategic alliance to the symbolic comradeship between Kim Il Sung and Robert Mugabe

This article provides an explanation for North Korea-Zimbabwe bilateral relations from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, in the context of Cold War in the Third World. Supporting the military resistance of African nations, North Korea sought to gain its dominance over South Korea in the diplomatic war between the two Koreas. North Korea contributed to the liberation of Zimbabwe and helped Robert Mugabe establish his political foundations in the country. However, North Korea’s political gain from Zimbabwe was less than it expected and hence did not make any significant changes in its competition with South Korea.     

‘Like two pieces of the sky’: Seeing North Korea through accounts of the famine (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

North Korea is renowned for its inaccessibility, with anthropologists and others compelled to work beyond its borders. Presented in this article are select findings from ethnographic research carried out in 2006 among refugee survivors of the North Korean famine living in South Korea. The ethnographic material shows how refugees’ accounts of their plight are shaped by the political conditions of North Korea.     

North Korea’s Response to US Army Propaganda Leaflets during the Korean War

This study examines a particular aspect of the history of North and South Korea’s bbira (propaganda leaflets), focusing on North Korea’s propaganda strategies in response to US propaganda during the Korean War, including perceptions of propaganda leaflets targeting North Koreans and counterstrategies used against them. The research herein analyses Munhakyesul, the leaflets during the Korean War, and the leaflets held by the DMZ Museum. The findings of this study reveal characteristics of and differences between the psychological tactics used by North Korea and the US during the Korean War, as exhibited through the use of these propaganda leaflets.     

Placing blame: Making sense of Beslan

The aftermaths of terrorist spectacles are intensely consequential moments in the making of geopolitical meaning. This paper develops a critical geopolitical account of the ways in which key actors involved in the terrorist incident at School Number 1 in Beslan North Ossetia constructed its meaning and justified their actions. The event is examined from three perspectives: the terrorist's Beslan, the Kremlin's Beslan and the contested meaning of Beslan among Ossetians and others in the North Caucasus. Multiple sources are utilized in the construction of the account: an English language archive of Russian reporting on the event, accounts of the siege, statements by key protagonists, elite interviews in North Ossetia, and the results of a survey question in North Ossetia and the North Caucasus on Beslan. The paper examines the construction of blame by the various actors and relates it to indiscriminate geographies, sweeping acts of abstraction whose homogenizing effects make (counter)terrorist violence possible.     

汉初长安的城防与“北军”建置

“北军”是汉朝十分重要的武装力量,但其并非始于高帝朝,而是惠帝后期随着长安城的修筑所设的城防部队。因西汉初期长安城南部主要为两宫,防务由卫尉执掌,城卫军只能驻扎在城北,所以宫卫军称南军,城卫军即北军。从张家山汉简《二年律令·秩律》来看,卫将军应是北军的最高长官,其建置还有卫将军长史、候(候丞)、校长、士吏等。当时卫将军是整个汉朝官僚体系中唯一常设的将军。文帝即位,卫将军权力扩大,在本部北军之外亦兼领南军,后北军一度旋罢旋置,再后来卫将军被裁撤,北军遂转属中尉。     

Explaining North Korea's Nuclear Ambitions: Power and Position on the Korean Peninsula

The USA has long called for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea. But is this a realistic policy option? In order to address this question, a broader question needs to be answered: What are the primary drivers of North Korea’s interest in nuclear weapons? Most answers to this question take one of two basic positions. ‘Doves’, on the one hand, see North Korea developing nuclear weapons because of the threatening foreign policies of the USA and South Korea. ‘Hawks’, on the other hand, see North Korean nuclear development as driven by factors internal to the North Korean regime, inherent in its personality. The author examines these two arguments against the evidence and finds them both wanting. In contrast, he puts forth an alternative argument focused on the power of the global hegemon, the USA, and its position on the Korean Peninsula. This power and positional alternative is shown to be better reflected in the evidence presented.     

North Korea’s participation in the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights

North Korea’s participation in the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)—a peer review in which states make recommendations to one another for improving human rights implementation—is a notable exception to its rejection of other human rights mechanisms. What explains North Korea’s willing participation in the UPR? This essay analyses North Korea’s participation in the first (2008–11) and second (2012–15) UPR cycles through its written submissions, responses to recommendations, and recommendations to other states. It finds that North Korea has consistently accepted weak recommendations, rejected more specific policy changes, and implemented accepted recommendations on a limited basis, allowing it to claim compliance with human rights at minimal cost. The UPR’s reliance on states’ self-reports and its inability to adjudicate competing factual claims allow North Korea to reject claims of egregious abuses, openly advocate for a radically state-centric vision of human rights, and challenge the legitimacy of human rights mechanisms like the Commission of Inquiry and Special Rapporteur while building support from other states with similar views. Notably, the Commission of Inquiry appears to have motivated North Korea to increase its cooperation with the UPR, demonstrating that the UPR complements but cannot replace other UN human rights mechanisms.     

The European Far North of Russia and Its Territorial Constructions in the Sixteenth–Twenty-First Centuries

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of the homogeneity and structure of the identity of the European Far North of Russia. The author comes to the conclusion that the structure of this territory has been determined since the sixteenth century by a rift between the Kola North and the Arkhangelsk North. While this rift deteriorated or was partially healed at different times, the differentiation of the European Far North of Russia into two territorial segments persisted over the periods of Muscovy, the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union. Although the Kola Peninsula was integrated for two centuries (1708–1921) into the vast province with a centre in the city of Arkhangelsk, it not only preserved features of its identity, but in fact managed to strengthen them, which eventually led to the administrative separation of the Kola North from the Arkhangelsk Province. The development of the two northern territories has been accompanied by competition, which is still there to a large extent. The phenomenon of the division of the Russian Far North in two parts is treated as a consequence of the importance which meridional strategic ties between the centre and the outlying northern areas acquired in the Russian State, in contrast to the weaker latitudinal peripheral ties between the provinces.     

对华北地区旧石器两大文化传统的反思

贾兰坡先生提出华北地区旧石器存在分别以大型石器与小型石器为特征的两大文化传统.本文通过对华北地区主要的旧石器遗址和地点文化特征的总结分析,发现石料的分布和两大文化传统的分布是完全重合的.所以,这种大小石器的分布区域不是文化因素的结果,而是自然资源(石料)分布差异的结果.所谓华北旧石器两大文化传统,是在受到原料制约的情况下自然产生的文化面貌.