North Korea’s economic reform can be marked by three distinct phases that coincide with the three Kim leaders’ reigns. However, the country remains poor and isolated and while there are multiple reasons for this, the failure of the DPRK’s economic reform since Kim Il Sung first took power appears to be the most important. 

NK Pro analysis indicates that reforms failed during the Kim Il Sung era because the leadership at the time did not feel the immediate need for fundamental reform and may even have thought that the country’s economic system was ideal