![\"Bank](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/news-p.v1.20260716.f5bdc813fb5b4feb8ac5ed5f710202d9_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Bank")
Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song attends the Monetary Policy Board meeting at the Bank of Korea in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of July 16. Joint Press Corps<\/p>\nBank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song attends the Monetary Policy Board meeting at the Bank of Korea in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of July 16. Joint Press Corps<\/p>\n
The Bank of Korea has reorganized the unit dedicated to researching North Korea’s economy into one covering economic security more broadly. As the research scope widens beyond the North Korean economy to include supply chains and critical minerals, concerns have emerged that the symbolic weight of North Korean economic research could fade and its momentum weaken.<\/p>\n
The central bank recently renamed the North Korea Economic Research Office at its Economic Research Institute as the Economic Security Research Office, alongside its regular second-half personnel changes, according to the BOK’s Planning and Coordination Department and others on the 16th. The new unit retains the existing North Korean economic research function while also covering economic security research such as supply chains, critical minerals, strategic materials and external dependence.<\/p>\n
The BOK says it expanded the research scope because demand has grown for research related to economic security, including cross-border economic relations, supply chains and strategic materials, alongside the North Korean economy. The intent, it says, is not to eliminate North Korean economic research but to broaden the scope in line with a rapidly changing external economic environment.<\/p>\n
Even so, some inside the BOK worry that the reorganization could push North Korean economic research off the organization’s core agenda. In particular, they say that with the disappearance of the “North Korea Economic Research Office” name, the very symbolic standing of North Korean economic research within the central bank has weakened.<\/p>\n
The BOK has accumulated considerable research capacity over the years, analyzing North Korea’s industrial structure and economic trends and estimating statistics on the North Korean economy. It has built particular expertise in analyzing the structure of the North Korean economy, including by compiling North Korea’s input-output tables.<\/p>\n
But with the departure of researchers in the field, the foundation for carrying on that accumulated capacity and know-how has weakened, according to voices inside and outside the central bank. The concern is that as the number of specialists studying the North Korean economy declines, the continuity of research built up over a long period could erode.<\/p>\n
Within the BOK, there are also reportedly voices suggesting that North Korean economy researchers received relatively unfavorable evaluations in past personnel reviews. According to this account, researchers in other fields with overseas doctorates fared relatively better in personnel decisions, while North Korean economic research \u2014 which by its nature struggles to demonstrate short-term policy relevance or results \u2014 worked against them in evaluations.<\/p>\n
Against this backdrop, with controversy continuing over the government’s “peaceful two-state relations” and its North Korea and unification policies, the BOK’s removal of the word “North Korea” from its North Korean economy research unit \u2014 coincidental as it may be \u2014 has drawn various interpretations. The BOK, however, maintains that the reorganization is unrelated to any shift in government North Korea policy and stems from growing research demand in economic security.<\/p>\n
Experts note that the name of a research unit itself is significant as a signal of the continuity and expertise of its research. A former senior government official said, “The name of a research unit is not merely a sign but is significant as a signal that the field will be researched continuously and that personnel will be cultivated,” adding, “If the North Korean economy is folded into economic security as a subfield of research, the scope may broaden, but conversely there is a need to examine the possibility that long-term, independent demand for research on the North Korean economy could weaken.”<\/p>\n
Retaining specialized researchers is important, observers say, because North Korean economic research requires not only responding to short-term policy demand but also tracking industrial structure and economic trends and accumulating data over a long period. Just as with North Korea’s input-output tables, research results built up over many years are difficult to sustain without researchers who can understand and carry them forward.<\/p>\n
The BOK maintains that the North Korean economic research function is not disappearing. It plans to continue the existing North Korean economic research within the Economic Security Research Office while also expanding into areas that have grown in importance, such as supply chains, critical minerals and cross-border economic relations.<\/p>\n
“This is not about eliminating North Korean economic research but about expanding the research function into a broader scope of economic security,” a BOK official said. “We plan to continue the existing research related to the North Korean economy as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song attends the Monetary Policy Board meeting at the Bank of Korea in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[845,846,62660,41203,62659,62661,62658,9474],"class_list":["post-120982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bank-of-korea","tag-bank-of-korea","tag-bok","tag-central-bank-reorganization","tag-economic-security","tag-economic-security-research-office","tag-north-korea-input-output-tables","tag-north-korean-economy-research","tag-supply-chains"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}