Editing History of North Korea (section)

=== Economic development ===
[[File:North Korean village in Yalu River delta.jpg|thumb|left|North Korean village in the Yalu River delta]]
Reconstruction of the country after the war proceeded with extensive Chinese and Soviet assistance.<ref name=Armstrong-2010>{{cite journal |url=http://japanfocus.org/-Charles_K_-Armstrong/3460 |title=The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 – 1960 |author=Charles K. Armstrong |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |year=2010 |access-date=3 May 2010 |archive-date=23 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223030716/http://japanfocus.org/-Charles_K_-Armstrong/3460 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Shen|first=Zhihua|author2=Yafeng Xia|title=China and the Post-War Reconstruction of North Korea, 1953–1961|journal=NKIDP Working Paper|date=May 2012|issue=4|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/NKIDP_Working_Paper_4_China_and_the_Postwar_Reconstruction_of_North_Korea.pdf|access-date=5 March 2014|archive-date=5 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705205556/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/NKIDP_Working_Paper_4_China_and_the_Postwar_Reconstruction_of_North_Korea.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Koreans with experience in Japanese industries also played a significant part.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History| last = Cumings| first = Bruce| author-link = Bruce Cumings| year = 2005| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-32702-1 |page=430}}</ref> Land was collectivized between 1953 and 1958. Many landlords had been eliminated by the earlier reforms or during the war.<ref name="auto4">{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=185 }}</ref>

Recovery from the war was slowed by a massive famine in 1954–55. Local officials had exaggerated the size of the harvest by 50–70%. After the central government took its share, starvation threatened many peasants; about 800,000 died. In addition collectivization was resisted; many farmers killed their livestock rather than turn them over to the collective farm.<ref>[[Andrei Lankov]]. "Trouble Brewing: The North Korean Famine of 1954–1955 and Soviet Attitudes toward North Korea."  ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 22:2 (Spring 2020) pp:3–25. [https://hdiplo.org/to/AR1020 online]</ref>

Although developmental debates took place within the Workers' Party of Korea in the 1950s, North Korea, like all the postwar [[communist states]], undertook massive state investment in heavy industry, state infrastructure and military strength, neglecting the production of consumer goods.<ref name=person-2008>{{cite web |url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHPBulletin16_p51.pdf |title=New Evidence on North Korea in 1956 |author=James F. Person |publisher=Cold War International History Project |year=2008 |access-date=3 May 2012 |archive-date=3 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203002122/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHPBulletin16_p51.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first Three Year Plan (1954–1956) introduced the concept of ''[[Juche]]'' or self-reliance.<ref name="Robinson 2007">{{cite book| title = Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey | url = https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi | url-access = registration | last = Robinson | first = Michael E | year = 2007 | publisher = University of Hawaii Press |  location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3174-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/151 151]}}</ref> The first Five Year Plan (1957–1961) consolidated the collectivization of agriculture and initiated mass mobilizations campaigns: the [[Chollima Movement]], the [[Economy of North Korea#Ch'ŏngsan-ni Method|Chongsan-ni]] system in agriculture and the [[Economy of North Korea#Taean work system|Taean Work System]] in industry.<ref name="Robinson 2007"/><ref>{{cite web|author=James F. Person|date=February 2009|title=New Evidence on North Korea's Chollima Movement and First-Five-Year Plan (1957–1961)|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/NKIDP_Document_Reader__North_Korean_Chollima_Movement_and_First_Five_Year_Plan.pdf|publisher=North Korea International Documentation Project|access-date=28 July 2020}}</ref> The Chollima Movement was influenced by China's [[Great Leap Forward]], but did not have its disastrous results.<ref name="Robinson 2007"/> Industry was fully nationalized by 1959.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |page=33}}</ref> Taxation on agricultural income was abolished in 1966.<ref name="auto4"/>

North Korea was placed on a semi-war footing, with equal emphasis being given to the civilian and military economies. This was expressed in the 1962 Party Plenum by the slogan, "Arms in one hand and a hammer and sickle in the other! "<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=98}}</ref> At a special party conference in 1966, members of the leadership who opposed the military build-up were removed.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=98–99}}</ref>

On the ruins left by the war, North Korea had built an industrialized command economy. The regime reached out to the [[Third World]] in the hope of developing strong trade relations.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nknews.org/2021/12/north-korean-capitalisms-failure-in-the-third-world/|title=North Korean capitalism's failure in the Third World|first=Benjamin R|last=Young|date=2 December 2021|publisher=[[NK News]]}}</ref> [[Che Guevara]], then a Cuban government minister, visited North Korea in 1960, and proclaimed it a model for Cuba to follow. In 1965, the British economist [[Joan Robinson]] described North Korea's economic development as a "miracle".<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History| last = Cumings| first = Bruce| author-link = Bruce Cumings| year = 2005| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-32702-1 |page=404}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea | last = Demick | first = Barbara | author-link = Barbara Demick | year = 2010 | publisher = Fourth Estate | location = Sydney| isbn = 9780732286613 |page=64}}</ref> As late as the 1970s, its GDP per capita was estimated to be equivalent to South Korea's.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=140}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History| last = Cumings| first = Bruce| author-link = Bruce Cumings| year = 2005| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-32702-1 |page=434}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title = Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey | url = https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi | url-access = registration | last = Robinson | first = Michael E | year = 2007 | publisher = University of Hawaii Press |  location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3174-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/153 153]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |page=34}}</ref> By 1968, all homes had electricity, though the supply was unreliable.<ref>{{cite book| title = Kim Il-song's North Korea | last = Hunter | first = Helen-Louise | year = 1999 | publisher = Praeger |  location = Westport, Connecticut | isbn = 978-0-275-96296-8 |page=196}}</ref> By 1972, all children from age 5 to 16 were enrolled in school, and over 200 universities and specialized colleges had been established.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=196 }}</ref> By the early 1980s, 60–70% of the population was urbanized.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=187 }}</ref>