North Korea: North Korea reveals itself

Let's hear it! North Korea's official press sites: the KCNA Agency, theYŏngyang Times, Rodong Sinmun and television have become invaluable sources of information. From nuclear deterrence and heavy industry to agriculture, health and even cosmetics, they report on the regime's successes. They even go so far as to provide an overview of the coming year's budget, and give their views on the economic orientations of the DPRK government: promoting stable and sustainable development, making substantial changes to the population's standard of living. If they are to be believed, North Korea is no longer the country that the Security Council only recently wanted to sanction.

Day after day, the North Korean news websites Pyongyang Times and Rodong Sinmun, as well as the daily news bulletins of the Korean Central Television KCTV, broadcast factual information on the regime's achievements1 . North Korea is no longer a black body that allows no information to filter through. In particular, the publication on January 22 2024 of a presentation of the state budget for the coming year provides an opportunity to structure scattered data and explore North Korean society today.

Whatever one's opinion of the North Korean regime, the indoctrination of its entire people, the gulags and the worship of "respected comrade Kim Jong-un" and his family, it's impossible not to take an interest in the information that the North Korean media bring to the attention of the international community. In fact, along with the American observation satellites, they are the main sources of information for the Sanctions Committee's group of experts. Official television footage and articles in the Pyongyang Times allow us to follow the day-to-day evolution of Pyongyang's strategic forces. Asie21 has used them to provide insights into North Korea's nuclear forces, and their doctrine of use2 .

But that's not the end of the information that North Korea wants to make public, between press releases celebrating its president, the economy being the subject of multiple daily press releases. And at the start of 2024, to show what the country's priorities are, the Economy Minister's presentation of the year's budget to the Supreme People's Assembly has been posted online3 .
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• A policy framework is given: "Promote stable and sustainable development, bring about substantial changes in the population's standard of living; focus investment on sectors constituting the backbone of a self-sufficient economy, while constantly improving the military potential of North Korea's armed forces."
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• One figure is put forward: the budget will be 3.4% up on the previous year, pointing to significant progress in living standards. An optimistic note, but still a far cry from the 10% China once boasted.

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A singular budget, reflecting the political choices of Kim Jong-un's Korea:
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• 15.9% of spending is earmarked for increasing the country's defense capabilities.
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• 24.4% of spending is earmarked for consolidating the self-sufficient economy. The main focus is on the main industrial sectors: metallurgy, chemicals, electricity, coal and mechanical engineering.
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• 36.8% of total expenditure was devoted to the social and cultural sphere, to help implement the Korean Workers' Party's child protection policy and make progress in the fields of education, public health, sport and culture.
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• The remaining 22.21% is devoted to various sectors, including the fight against epidemics (including Covid), and major construction programs. There is no mention of social spending.

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A budget, a policy, whose successes the North Korean press celebrates day after day in triumphant communiqués, often to the glory of the regime. The emphasis is on heavy industry, in particular metallurgy, but we refuse to reveal the volumes produced or the characteristics of the steel produced. We leave it to the specialist to appreciate the technological level revealed by the photo opposite.

More enlightening are the announcements on the evolution of society. Foremost among these are the numerous announcements on agriculture. They show how important it is for the DPRK to give this sector the limited means at its disposal to adequately feed its people, who are now protected from famine as a result of the embargoes imposed by the United Nations4 .

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We'll be paying close attention to press releases that accompany society's evolution towards greater care and comfort. High points for the nation.
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• The Taedonggang syringe plant has introduced new production processes for disposable aseptic hypodermic syringes and entry needles optimized for easier penetration.
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• The inauguration of the Paekhak brand dental hygiene supplies factory, with a production capacity of tens of millions of brushes in over ten models.
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• And on January 26, 2024, in keeping with the decisions of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party, the Sinuiju cosmetics factory is striving to improve the quality of its Unhasu (Milky Way) brand products, hand disinfectant gels, cleansing creams, whitening toilet soap, eye shadow and more than 20 types of product. The country promotes these products extensively for export beyond its borders.

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Then there's defense, and the implications for deterrence forces of a budget heading amounting to 15.9% of the national budget. In 2024, North Korea has a credible nuclear and space industrial base that no longer needs to be built up, but only strengthened. All that remains is to allocate it a small share of the defense budget. In all likelihood less than a third of the appropriations, to be sure of not being contradicted, not exceeding 6% of the State budget.

The sanctions imposed by the Security Council to deprive the DPRK of resources to pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile programs have had no other effect than to delay the country's development and adversely affect the humanitarian situation in the country. This has been denounced by the experts appointed by the Security Council to monitor the sanctions.

Isn't it time to look at North Korea as something other than a totalitarian country which survives only thanks to the gulags, but despite so many dark sides that remain, to realize that, despite everything, year after year, it is positively transforming itself in a country of our time.

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1. KTCN video archive, KCNA WATCH, kcnawatch.org/kctv-archive/
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2. See Asia21
   n° 164/2022-09 North Korea - United States: Nuclear and responsible  
   n° 167/2022-12 North Korea - United States: Nuclear as usual
   n° 168/2023-01 North Korea - South Korea - United States: Korean nuclear pruritus
   n° 171/2023-04 North Korea - United States - United Nations: A nuclear exhibition
   n°172/2023-05 North Korea - United States - United Nations : The roaring thirty-eighth
   n°176/2023-10 North Korea - United States - Israel: A responsible state?
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3. Report on state budget delivered at 10th Session of 14th SPA of DPRK, KCNA, 16/01/2024
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4. Cf. Asie21 n° 169/2024-01 North Korea: Kim's agriculture

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