North Korea's Economy

North Korea's economy is currently one of the world's only centrally planned systems. The role of market allocation is sharply limited – mainly in the rural sector where some peasants sell produce from small private plots. There are almost no legal small businesses, but illegal small businesses are very common. Although there have been scattered and limited attempts at decentralization, as of mid-1993, Pyongyang's basic adherence to a rigid centrally planned economy continues, as does its reliance on fundamentally non-monetary incentives. The collapse of communist governments around the world in 1991, particularly North Korea's principal source of support, the Soviet Union, have forced North Korean economy to realign its foreign economic relations. Economic exchanges with South Korea have even begun in earnest ways at times