Making Money in a Hostile State
Entrepreneurship, Property Rights, and the Rise of Markets in North Korea
Peter Ward author Andrei Lankov author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Publishing:2nd Feb '27
£30.00
This title is due to be published on 2nd February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Officially, North Korea is a state-socialist command economy that does not recognize private property and does not permit private enterprise beyond the household. Beneath the façade, however, markets are widespread, affecting the lives of almost every person in the country.
This book offers a pioneering look inside North Korea’s shadow economy, examining the social groups and government policies that shape the country’s market order. Andrei Lankov and Peter Ward trace how North Korean markets have emerged over the past forty years and analyze the state’s shifting strategies for exerting political control over economic activity. They survey four key sectors that are crucial to the daily survival of most North Koreans—farming, fisheries, household production and distribution, and animal husbandry—including both smaller-scale production and larger firms embedded within state structures. Lankov and Ward show how the interactions among entrepreneurs, local officials, and central government policy makers have led to the rise of a unique form of private economic activity.
Making Money in a Hostile State draws on a wide range of sources, such as original interviewees with North Korean escapees, defector memoirs, and official North Korean materials including leaked internal documents. Revealing how markets and entrepreneurship have become a crucial part of the North Korean economy, this book provides new insight into the survival of one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
Lankov and Ward have written an outstanding book on North Korea’s economy that examines the linkages between markets, state control, and ordinary citizens trying to survive. The book is empirically rich, theoretically important, and a fascinating read for researchers and general readers alike. -- Terence Roehrig, author of Japan, South Korea, and the United States Nuclear Umbrella: Deterrence After the Cold War
Andrei Lankov and Peter Ward bring decades of expertise to this important study of North Korea’s political economy. Making Money in a Hostile State will be must-read research for specialists, and is likely to stand as a reference for the field for some time to come. -- Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute
Andrei Lankov has long been the most insightful analysts of North Korea and here he is ably joined by Peter Ward, tackling the contradictions in a country that bans most market activity, but adores money. Their book is perhaps coyly titled, Making Money in a Hostile State, but it is far from a how-to manual for prospective entrepreneurs and investors, instead cautioning the uninitiated about how North Korea shouldn't be confused with the other countries that have transitioned out of socialism. -- Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Andrei Lankov and Peter Ward have produced a remarkably lucid and well-researched account of how markets function inside North Korea’s formal prohibitions. By explaining the complex interaction of market actors, local officials, and central authorities across economic sectors, they show that the state's toleration of “illegal” private activity is less a sign of weakness or instability than a continuing method of rule. The result is a book that will reward not only researchers of the North Korean economy, but also readers interested in the country’s society and political system. -- B. R. Myers, author of North Korea's Juche Myth
ISBN: 9780231224949
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
312 pages