North Korea Formally Welcomed to the Political Realm

What do I mean by that?

Get a load of this shit:

U.N.: North Korea's Experiment Failing

U.N. Official: North Korea's Experiment in Capitalism Compounds Hunger, Poverty

Yep. Somehow, it just seems right that now North Korea has instituted market reforms, the blame for the ill effects of those reforms is placed on capitalism. Welcome to the Post-Marxian World of Collectivist Bitching, North Korea. From this point on, nothing you do will be enough to please the Media Gawds.

Or the UN.

By dabbling with capitalism, North Korea is creating a new class of urban poor that is worsening its hunger problem, a top U.N. official said Wednesday.

About 1 million urban workers have fallen victim as once centrally controlled industries have to cut costs and jobs amid free-market pressures, said Masood Hyder, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in North Korea.

Hunger and health woes, traditionally a rural plight in North Korea, are an increasingly urban phenomenon that is likely to worsen, Hyder said.

A key cause of the new problem is corporate-belt tightening, common in industrialized countries, but largely unknown until now in the communist North, he said.

This is one of those situations where the plain truth of the matter is used to underhandedly score ideological points. Yes, the nature of free (-er) markets means that some people fail at being able to provide for themselves, either due to job loss or low income. Businesses must adhere to economic reality, otherwise they fail as well. This is generally accepted in a few places, primarily the United States. The UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and a few other scattered nations also accept this, but increasingly refuse to let things play out without significant market interference. The rest of the world is not even worth mentioning, it's so bleak.

And that's the problem. The reason it's bleak is because there is so much market intervention. Governments doing what they can to stave off economic reality with regulations, dictates, and mandates. These actions may work in the short run, but eventually they fail and create unintended consequences that more than make up for any short term economic gains. The markets are artificially propped up and subsidized through this interference...and when that interference is lessened, we get what can be politely termed as a correction.

Prices re-assert themselves according to supply and demand. Employment changes as employers are free to make more choices on their own. People uproot themselves and move to lands of better opportunity. It's like removing Orwell's boot from humanity's face and watching the face's skin slowly revert back to normal. That readjustment can be painful.

The reforms were launched July 1, 2002, when Pyongyang boosted pay and loosened price controls seen as significant moves because they included elements of a market-based economy in one of the world's most tightly controlled countries.

But the reforms have a darker side, said Hyder, who arrived in the isolated country a month after they began.

"Those industries, those factories that are no longer capable of standing on their own feet have had to cut back, have had to redeploy staff," he said, with managers under increased pressure to match supply with demand and trim expenses.

As a result, more workers are having their pay cut or hours slashed, making it harder to buy food as overall prices see a general increase, Hyder said.

"A million people fall into this new category of underemployed beneficiaries, underemployed urban workers who need assistance," he said citing World Food Program estimates.

I see it as an economic earthquake. Many earthquakes occur due to the slow buildup of opposing forces placed on Earth's tectonic plates. That pressure must be relieved somehow; you can't put off the realignment forever. The more regular and often the release, the less impact they have. But if they are delayed, pushed back, or otherwise prevented from occuring, they will only hit much much harder down the road.

As evidence of the reforms he has witnessed, Hyder cited a blossoming of small enterprises, new stores, mobile phone usage, consumers' markets and price increases.

The advent of marketplaces where people are allowed to haggle and sell what they want has helped boost prices that were once held down by dictate. At a Pyongyang market Hyder visited, rice cost the equivalent of 44 cents a pound, compared with the official rationing price of 17 cents a pound.

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Despite my status as a detached observer, I consider this a good thing. It must happen. It has to happen. It's best that it happens sooner rather than later.

Via Den Beste.

Posted by Drizzten at December 04, 2003 01:02 AM