The North Korean economy: Escape from import-led growth

We investigate causal relationships among exports, imports, and economic growth in North Korea using time series data for the period between 1964 and 2008. The empirical results show Granger causality from imports to GNP in the first half of the period and from GNP to imports in the second half. This implies that the North Korean economy escaped from the import-led growth situation that some socialist economies had experienced and changed its macroeconomic mechanism in 1991.