The Case of Anticipating Changes in the North Korean Food Safety Regime

Abstract

This Article aims to provide one of the world's first analyses of the North Korean food safety regime. Very rarely has this regime been a subject of discussion, as much attention has been diverted to food security issues. However, food safety remains a critical problem for the people. I will analyze North Korea's food safety regime and the factors that create, influence, and develop food safety protections; it will subsequently discuss trends that illustrate how food safety standards are evolving in the country. In Part I, I introduce the concept of evolving food safety regimes. I draw upon certain theoretical underpinnings of this concept by defining regime and reviewing the causes of regulatory failure that ultimately follow changes in regimes. In Part II, I study the developments in North Korea's food safety regime from a legal perspective, going beyond merely discussing political transformations. I discuss the developments in the country's laws and regulations by touching upon different elements of the food safety regime separately. This is a rather novel study and I use this methodology to identify and distinguish different elements undergoing social progress separately. In Part III, I cautiously make predictions of changes in North Korea's food safety regime. As a general phenomenon in the area of food law, naturally, a regime is not static. Decision-making procedures that comply with the law, introduction of transparent lawmaking processes, predictable implementation and enforcement ofthe law, and raising public awareness are all important tasks. While deification of the Kim family will most likely continue as a primary political priority, it is still likely that the government will delve into structural fragmentation problems, societal segmentation problems, and raise public participation in the near future as it continues to realize that a well-established and stable legal food safety regime is critical. It will be very difficult for the government to ignore when food safety accidents occur and people become increasingly aware of regulatory failures.