Evaluation of North Korea's Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report

YANG Un-Chul

Senior Research Fellow,

The Sejong Institute

ucyang@sejong.org

Executive Summary 

 ■ Significance of North Korea's VNR report

○ In July 2021, North Korea submitted a Voluntary National Review (VNR) report, which included its own sustainable development goals (SDGs) and plans to implement them by 2030, to the UN Economic and Social Council's high-level political forum

 - North Korea will spend a considerable period participating in international conferences, organizing TFs, preparing statistical data, and writing the VNR report in order to implement its SDGs

○ North Korea's participation in the SDGs adopted by the UN was a groundbreaking event, given how isolated North Korea has been from the international community

 - North Korea is expected to reap economic benefits by partaking in the global process to achieve the SDGs

○ North Korea, which faces economic difficulties, may secure a new outlet for cooperation and economic support from the international community

■ Highlights of the VNR report

○ North Korea proposed to achieve 17 SDGs in its VNR report submitted to the UN

○ North Korea tailored its specific NDGs based on the SDGs proposed by the UN.

○ Although North Korea's VNR is similar to those of other countries in terms of economic, social, and health aspects, it varies a lot in the area of politics

 - North Korea proposed North Korea Development Goals(NDGs) and compared them with the SDGs

○ North Korea seeks self-reliance based on knowledge and a national economy based on its jucheism

- North Korea prioritized providing a high standard of living for its general public in line with achieving the NDGs

○ 17 goals include self-reliance, the establishment of a knowledge-based economy, an economy based on jucheism, modernization of industrial infrastructure, and consolidation of socialist systems

■ Problems of North Korea's statistical data

○ North Korea disclosed a lot of statistical data in the VNR

○ The credibility of North Korea's statistical data greatly varies depending on the nature of the variables

 - North Korea's GDP growth rate is difficult to be trusted

- North Korea's food production figures are likely to be accurate

- Significant meaning is attached for the first disclosure of statistical data by North Korea

○ Statistical data related to nature, climate, and natural disasters cannot be immediately trusted yet are valuable for the disclosure itself

- It is necessary to estimate and track the reality of North Korea based on the data disclosed by North Korea

■ The direction of North Korea's future development

○ If North Korea continues to try to implement the SDGs, then its image may improve.

- As Sung Kim had mentioned, North Korea faces an economic hardship due to U.S. economic sanctions, buy may hopefully give up its nuclear program

 - North Korea may devise its own development program by linking its five-year economic plan with the implementation of the SDGs

 - North Korea must believe that its economic cooperation through the UN is the best, low-cost policy to ease its burden from the U.S. sanctions

- As it is taking longer than expected to revitalize trade between North Korea and China, related economic activities are affected by economic sanctions

○ If North Korea actively participates in UN programs, it may benefit from UN economic aid

○ In the short term, promoting the UN joint cooperation project with North Korea will be an effective way for South Korea to improve inter-Korean relations

※ This article is written based on the author’s personal opinions and does not reflect the views of the Sejong Institute.

※ Translator’s note: This is a 3rd party's unofficial translation of the original paper which was written in Korean. All references should be made to the original paper.