The economy of North Korea?

Question

I am currently studying Economics in my school and I recently learned about economic systems such as mixed economies which are government based,five main economics goals:efficiency,freedom,security/predictability, equity,growth/innovation, the three economic questions every society asks themselves: what to produce, how to produce it and who will consume it? After learning about this I thought about the US's economic system then eventually I thought about North Korea's economic system. North Korea is obviously a mixed economy that is government based but I am not sure about the three economic questions and goals of Korea. So can someone help me with this?

Answer 1

No, not mixed but centrally planned. The questions of what, how and for whom are decided by the government. The "for whom" being determined by how much pay people get paid and what is on the shelves for them to buy.
The goals of North Korea seem to be for the Communist party to stay in power and to further the Communist ideology. Any thing that they see as descent is squashed. Money is put into arms and armaments not consumer goods, infrastructure, except where it will help with defence of offence.

You would they would look at the west and see how 'badly off' we are.

Answer 2

There are no strength that i can think of except they have their nuclear program as a bargaining chip for food aid. As for weaknesses, because of UN sanctions, they virtually have no trade with other countries of the world. This makes their economy behave like a closed economy. Under theories proposed by Richardo, a country should export the stuff they make better than every other country or the stuff they suck at the least, and import stuff either they cant make or realli suck at making. Because this inability to trade, North Korea cannot follow the theory of Richardo to improve their productivity, and because North Korean is such a tiny country, they would also not be able to get much resources. As a result of this inefficency and lack of resources, the economy for North Korea is very weak and fragile. Its people faces poverty and starvation.