The Reform And Opening - Up Mode Of Major Socialist Countries And The Enlightenment To North Korea

Socialist, once a major axis of the 20^th century during the Cold War, disappeared into history with the regime change after the late 1980s, and the only countries that were still able to maintained socialist were China, Vietnam, Cuba, and North Korea. Within these countries, China since 1970s, Vietnam since late 1980s, and Cuba since early 1990s has each shown attempts of reforms. Since China’s reformation in 1978, China has maintained high economic growth and developed into a global economic leader. Both Vietnam and Cuba had gained successful results from their reformation. In this regard, there needs to be consideration for the economic growth of socialist countries after their reformation.Currently, North Korean economy shows stagnation and is in an economic crisis of food shortage, energy shortage, raw materials shortage, and foreign currency crisis. In order for economic recovery, reformation is no longer a choice but an obligation. As seen earlier in other socialist countries, socialists who were able to successfully enforce internal system reformation and foreign open policy survived, but those who didn’t carry it effectively or those who refused collapsed. This shows that to maintain its system, it is necessary for the North Korea to open up for reformation. In order to avoid bitter failure from the past and successfully promote reformation, North Korea should adapt the implication from the experiences of successfully reformed socialist countries such as China, Vietnam, and Cuba. In other words, North Korea should understand that reformation is an inevitable decision for the country to maintain its system. North Korea should recognize that a domestic reforms and foreign opening should be joined with a virtuous cycle, reformation succeeds only when there are amicable foreign relations with neighboring countries, the initial internal changes of the system requires effective management, and a formation of the support class is necessary to lead the reformation. This paper uses previous reformation cases of China, Vietnam, and Cuba for the ba sis of the research of North Korea’s economic reformation and foreign open policy. The purpose of this research lies in deducting the direction of the North Korean reformation through the consideration of the present economic conditions of North Korea, the trial at tempts North Korea has made, and the limit of the reformation of North Korea.