Chronic Food Shortages and the Collective Farm System in North Korea‪.‬

This article considers the problem of North Korea's collective farms from a micro-institutional perspective. It begins with an analysis of the collective fanning system introduced in 1958, the changes in 1966 that allowed for subwork teams, and the further reform of 1996 that permitted a new work squad system. The normalization of North Korea's agriculture is not just a technological problem; rather, it requires reform of the collective farms and their incentives: the removal of the inefficient elements in the shorter term and the promotion of family farming in the medium to longer term. KEYWORDS: North Korea, economic reform, collective farm