Transplantation and adaptation of the Soviet economic model in North Korea, 1945-1960

The North Korean development model holds distinct similarities to the Soviet model. The Soviet Union’s experience and example played a key role in the initial nation-building in North Korea. However, as this study aims to argue, in the certain areas such as the economy, the transfer of the Soviet model to the Korean soil was often done against the direct Soviet advice. This study based on analysis of primary sources including declassified archival materials traces the entrenchment in North Korea in the 1940s-1950s of the key elements of the “classic” Soviet economic model such as directive centralized economic planning, nationalization, industrialization and prioritized heavy industry development and collectivized agriculture. Such research contributes to the better understanding of the economic and political processes in North Korea in the first post-liberation decades, of its economic system and relations with key political and economic allies in the Cold War.