The primary purpose of this study was to understand the cause of the wide changes of the policies regarding the science and technology occurring in D.P.R.K. since ‘an Era of Knowledge Economy’. And the secondary purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of D.P.R.K.’s national innovation system and its operational conditions in ‘the Era of Knowledge Economy’ through the National Innovation System approach.
The results of this study can be summed up as follows; First, as ‘the Era of knowledge economy’ progresses, the contents of the production factors for the Self-reliance economic policy(Jaribgeok minjokkyoungjae kunseolnosun) in D.P.R.K. have changed all. D.P.R.K.’s own staff, resources and technology, each corresponding to labor, objects of labor and means of labor, have changed to intelligence labor, knowledge resources and advanced technology, while the era of machine industry has shifted to the era of knowledge economy. Hence, such change of the substructure causes the superstructure to change, and at the same time, under the influence of Juche(self-reliance) ideology, the substructure adequate to the changed era has been constructed rapidly, and thus, the policies in the sectors of education, science & technology and economic management have changed rapidly.
Secondly, the basis for D.P.R.K.’s national innovation system in ‘the era of knowledge economy’ has been revealed in detail through the idea of ‘Construction of the Powerful Socialist Nation’ presented at the 7th Congress of D.P.R.K.’s Labor Party. Its basis has been maintained through the 8th Congress of D.P.R.K.’s Labor Party and the New Year messages since the beginning of the era of knowledge economy, while only its dynamics have varied depending on the importance of the policies. The characteristics of the Construction of Nation’s Innovation System are as follows; ① The complexity has been more apparent among the innovation subjects or industry, academic circle and research groups due to the division of nation’s science, technology and research & development parts; ② Such innovation-friendly legal systems as ‘Business Group Law’ and ‘Science & Technology Law’ have been arranged and established pre-emptively. ③ ‘The digital economy’ has been highlighted by joining the world-wide digital conversion trend due to COVID-19. ④ A self-reliant innovation has been pursued under the closed national innovation system.
Thirdly, the characteristics of operating the national innovation system in ‘the Era of Knowledge Economy’ are as follows; ① ‘Science & Technology Law’ has been amended to expand the autonomy of the sub-units under the science & technology development plan system to enhance the possibility of achieving the goals of the plan by increasing the incentives; ② The efforts to get the successful R&D performances have been made through mutual interaction among a few industry/academic/research subjects; ③ Professional R&D manpower and knowledge-based workers have increased owing to the reinforcement of the relevant manpower linkage and the campaign for ‘all people should be science and technology talents’; ④ R&D investments have increased, while scientists and engineers have been given special treatment.
Since D.P.R.K.’s vast changes of science and technology policies have been affected by their change of perception of the world trend, it is expected that D.P.R.K. will pursue the policies related to the national innovation system suggested at the 7th Party Congress. Such changes seem to be very important in that South-North science and technology exchanges and collaboration may well be pursued under a new paradigm in the era of knowledge economy. Hence, it is hoped that this study will be followed up by mid- and long-term studies that will examine D.P.R.K.’s diverse policies pursuing the innovation.