During North Korean Supreme People's Assembly Chairman Kim Yong-nam's visit to Beijing last year, the two countries agreed to an "I'm OK, you're OK" formulation, in which they agreed to pursue socialism according to their respective national characteristics.
During Kim Jong-il's visit earlier this month, the public pronouncements were very different. Kim noted the "great achievements" of "opening up the country" by Chinese reformer Deng Xiao-peng and announced that North Korea "supports the reform policy pursued by the Chinese side. " These comments suggest a new receptiveness to economic reform on the part of the North Koreans, and open up the possibility of the Chinese adopting their natural role as mentors in this regard. A visit to a Chinese computer factory reportedly left Kim's mouth agape.
CONCLUSION
This is not dispositive―one can easily ascribe a variety of motives to these statements. Nevertheless, I would argue that these statements push the weight of evidence toward the strategic reorientation interpretation of North Korean behavior.
2) CAPABILITIES AND THE POSSIBILITIES FOR REFORM
Intention does not necessarily translate into achievement, however, and there is no guarantee that the North Koreans can successfully reform.
Significant obstacles:
・ North Korea is (or at least was) a more industrialized economy than China when China inaugurated its reforms, and the process of carrying out successful economic reform in North Korea could be considerably more difficult than in China or Vietnam, Asia's other major transitional economies. (Table 1).
