ABSTRACT
The relative importance of the defense industry in North Korea’s economy is much higher than that in any other country. This is because North Korea’s defense industry, based the state policy of “military first and self-reliance,” has supported the state system. In serving such a role, North Korea’s defense industry has long enjoyed the privilege of priority distribution of manpower and resources over other sectors. Furthermore, the defense industry has been of core interest to North Korea’s top leaders. As a result, North Korea’s defense industry has achieved great progress and it is now capable of developing nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The chapter briefly looks at the current state of the defense industry in North Korea as well as its structure, operation systems and the development process. It also considers the characteristics of North Korea’s defense industry related to the location of factories, operation systems and modernization. Lastly, it analyzes the production of North Korea’s defense industry using a feasible but limited data set to estimate annual production in each weapons system sector of the industry.
