North Korea's Economic Assessment for 2023 and Outlook for 2024: Focusing on the Results of the Plenary Sessions of the Party Central Committee and the Supreme People's Assembly

Eunjoo Choi

Sejong Institute

Research Fellow

ej0717@sejong.org

In December 2023 and January 2024, North Korea held the 8th Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the 14th Plenary Session of the Supreme People's Assembly, respectively, to present its economic situation in 2023 and its major economic policies for 2024. North Korea praised its economic achievements in 2023, providing a number of unusually detailed figures. The economy is believed to have rebounded in 2023 as North Korea's ongoing repair and reconstruction programs made some progress, and foreign trade continued to increase, alleviating some of the procurement problems for intermediate goods and imports. Based on this, North Korea maintained the existing economic policy framework in 2024, while also proposing a new strategy for local economic development, the "Local Development 20×10" policy. North Korea's external economic relations are also of interest, with economic exchanges and cooperation projects with China and Russia likely to expand. While it is difficult to resolve the fundamental difficulties of the North Korean economy by expanding the external economic sector in the face of sanctions, it is likely to be favorable for the implementation of economic policies. However, the speed and scale of the expansion of the external economic sector will be affected by the international situation.