CAMBRIDGE, England -- For several years now North Korea has been carrying out a process of economic reform and opening up. Sound familiar? That is what the Chinese did 25 years ago when they, too, realized that their economic system was out-of-date and unable to meet the aspirations of its people.
As the North Korean news agency put it in a press release recently: "We are now taking bold measures to improve the overall economic management system with a view to re-energizing the economy to suit the changed actual conditions in the new century." I can vouch for this, as I was one of the economists they called on for advice last year.
After the historic trip to Pyongyang by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 2000, several countries normalized their relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and others signaled their intention to do so. Leader after leader visited Pyongyang and offered their support for the reforms. And not only the usual leaders of small countries: Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jiang Zemin of China went and even Japan sent its prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi.