ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 critically looks at North Korea’s external economic relations. It is important to understand the current situation and the unique features of North Korea’s external economic relations in order to seek a possible strategy for the opening of North Korea to the regional and international community. Thus in Chapter 4, we discuss trends in North Korea’s foreign trade and explain important features of international trade and foreign direct investment in North Korea. Above all, country has very limited economic interactions with the international community. The poor record of North Korea’s international transactions reflects its mixed feelings towards the international community that “International economic exchanges are needed, but not liked and actually feared”. 1 North Korea still has mainly negative perceptions of economic opening and regional economic integration; it fears a threat to the stability of its regime, and has allowed only limited contacts with specific countries, in particular China.
