This study analyzes changes of North Korean economic policies and examines North Korea today from the perspectives of recent North Korean defectors from a variety of social backgrounds. More specifically, this study investigates the question of how and under what conditions various sorts of markets emerge in North Korea. In order to conduct the research, the study examines official documents of the DPRK, in addition to interview data from recent North Korean defectors, by employing a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods.

Key findings of the study are as follows: First, during the economic crisis of the 1990s the regime modified its relationship to the population in terms of coercive mechanisms, as well as in economic institutions and ideology, shifting from a lack of political compromise to tenuous compromise. Second, the Kim Jong Il regime employs a dual strategy, adopting both conservative and reformist measures simultaneously, and economic policy occurs in 3-year cycles. Uncertainty in the country, however, has prevented policy makers in the DPRK from maintaining stability and continuity of the economic policies, mainly due to a lack of available resources, as well as a lack of state capacity. Third, employing the concept of "everyday politics," this study finds that state-society interactions once constrained by a highly centralized governing structure, characterized by an emphasis on political and moral motivations, have yielded to fragmented and autonomous systems strengthened by realization of individual self-interest. In the process, the state and society have reshaped patterns of interaction, regarding information flow structures, rules of behavior, and motivations. That is, both the state and society seek coexistence, and the market spontaneously developed by the population functions as a shock-absorber mechanism. A new history from the bottom in the country has begun.