Entrepreneurship in North Korea? Bringing Business Concepts to a Communist Nation

Geoffrey See is the founder of Choson Exchange, an organization based in Singapore that works to improve the business knowledge of young professionals in North Korea who are between the ages of 20 and 40. North Korea is considered a communist country, which means that a single party has governmental power, restricting the actions of citizens. Many of the business concepts that are embraced in the U.S. and other parts of the world, like entrepreneurship, are constrained in North Korea. See sat down with Knowledge@Wharton High School editor Diana Drake to discuss Choson’s mission and the potential influence of financial literacy education in North Korea.

An edited version of this interview appears below.


Geoffrey See: When I was a student at Penn in 2007, I [chose] to go to China for one of the summers to do research and to intern in China. I had some time during my internship, so I went to North Korea as a tourist. I was familiar with the usual stereotypes of North Korea as a communist country, but what really surprised me was [that] I met university students who were very interested in business and economics. They wanted to get access to books and topics, they wanted to find ways to learn about business, and they were very curious to hear about it, especially from someone who was studying business in a university setting. It made a very deep impression on me, because there just weren’t people doing something in this area. After that, I worked with a few friends and spent one and a half years trying to find a way to go back into North Korea to set up these programs. What we do now is workshops for younger, high-potential adults in the areas of business, economics and law.


See: [Many] young people there are very interested in trying new things. They want to set up their own businesses. They want to implement the things that they’ve learned and heard from the rest of the world. The problem, though, is that it’s still a very restrictive economy and society, so [they can’t implement] a lot of the things that they want to do. We have discussions with younger people who are trying to implement some of these ideas. Down the road, we can see them [setting] up their own businesses [driving] some of this change outside of their existing organizations.




KWHS: How strong is business education in North Korea?


KWHS: Have you seen results from the education that you have given to them?  Are they putting some of what they have learned into practice?

See: In terms of studying businesses, it’s still at a very early stage, but in terms of some of the training we’ve done on the investment laws in North Korea, we have seen some results. Last year, we did a few programs focused on this area of how to change a law so that investors feel safer about putting their money in the country. Earlier this year in January, [North Korea] updated some of those laws. In some of the programs, we’re looking at a much longer-term change because of our focus on young adults in the 20 to 40 age range. There will be at least a 10- or 15-year period before they are able to have a much more senior say in how decisions are made. That’s the horizon we have in terms of where we expect to see most of the impact.

KWHS: How are you following that progress?

See: We try our best to keep in touch. It’s North Korea, and the way it works there is that each organization has one e-mail, so you can’t e-mail individuals on a private basis. Sometimes we will meet people that we’ve done training with before, or we will talk to people who know them. Or sometimes when they come out of the country for a project, they will e-mail us and let us know how things are [going] with them. It’s very hard to conceive in this day and age when you can e-mail a friend, [contact] them on Facebook or call them, that you can [experience] so many logistical challenges just to hear from people whom you have worked with in training programs.

KWHS: Is social media having an impact at all in the economy?

See: North Korea doesn’t have free access to the Internet. There’s a local Intranet in North Korea [that] North Koreans can access, but it’s limited in terms of the materials from outside of the country. We have not seen social media like Twitter and Facebook having much of an impact in North Korea. But they are starting to reintroduce mobile phones in the country, [which are] becoming very popular among a good proportion of the population who can afford them. I think people are starting to more actively communicate with each other. We have met North Koreans overseas who use Skype to communicate with each other.



KWHS: Does North Korea have an existing incubator infrastructure?




KWHS: It sounds like they have hope.


KWHS: You mentioned [young people] visiting China. China actually has great influence on the North Korean economy, correct?  Does that also have an impact on the financial and business education?

See: I think China is interesting to them because it used to be a communist country. The economy used to be state-owned, and now there’s a process of privatization, there’s a process of introducing elements of a market economy. There are still [many] state-run aspects to China today. But they have also introduced concepts that never existed in China before.

Just think about the banking industry. In the past, if the bank had money, they would give it out to institutions that had assets that the government thought were critical to the national economy. But today, we see that when banks assess whether a company should be receiving the loan, they think about, “Can they repay it? How much should we be charging them based on what we think is the risk of them not paying us back?” Those are radically different concepts. The North Koreans who go out to China can see that 20 years ago, China was at the same point in terms of how [North Korea’s] economy is now structured. But [China’s economy has evolved]. Look at how living standards have changed there. Look at all of these interesting things that they’re doing there. I think that has a huge impact on North Koreans who have had the opportunity to visit China.

KWHS: What insights have you gained about business education from young people in North Korea that can be applied to youth around the globe?

See: The 20-to-30 age range, not just in North Korea but anywhere else, is the period when people are very driven by new ideas. They’re very excited and willing to go out and try something different. They are at a stage in life where they are able to afford those risks.

KWHS: Thank you for joining us.

See: Thank you.



Why is it important for young people in North Korea to better understand business concepts?

How big of a role does social media play in North Korean communications? How might your life change without access to these channels of communication?

What is a business incubator and how might it help nurture North Korean entrepreneurship?


Related Links

This post is also available in: Spanish

“The 20-to-30 age range, not just in North Korea but anywhere else, is the period when people are very driven by new ideas. They're very excited and willing to go out and try something different.”
This entry was posted in Articles, Entrepreneurs and Leaders, Social Impact, Videos. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

Join the Discussion