DPRK Information Strategy - Does It Exist
Abstract
This chapter will demonstrate that Kim Jong Il has always had an information sector strategy, but it failed. As two cautionary tales about DPRK hardware and software ventures will show, the DPRK IT-sector technological strategy today is not new. Its origins and antecedents stretch back two decadesindeed, to the time that Kim Jong Il ascended to power under his fathers tutelage. Along the way, the chapter will show that COCOM restrictions and U.S. sanctions on dual-capable technology transfer were largely ineffective in the IT sector for the whole period of its nuclear-weapons program. But the author also argues that the DPRK IT capacity has been isolated from the rest of the economy and relegated to a minor aspect of an early heavy-industrial structure dominated by metal-bending, crude-chemical processing, and rock-breaking and construction by mobilized mass labor. This outcome was due partly to the specific IT strategy selected by the DPRK leadership and partly to the reluctance of DPRK industrial management to adopt automation technology and software in various sectors. Thus, the strategy failed to create a dynamic economy stimulated by information technology. Consequently, the DPRK finds itself as one of the least network-ready and most isolated societies on the planet. In light of these lessons, the author suggests that the international community and the DPRK leadership should explore three niche-network opportunities in the early transitional period before the DPRK embarks on a structural adjustment. These are networks for niche markets in software and information processing, minerals exports, and interconnected network corridors. In conclusion, the author notes that the current shift to proto-markets and technocratic planning in the DPRK runs the risk that old bad habits will reassert themselves. Information, training, and networked knowledge support systems can help the DPRK leadership to avoid these pitfalls.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- AD1032398
Entities
People
- Peter Hayes
Organizations
- Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies