Data

Datasets built for my research on the North Korean economy, released so that others can use and check them. Free to download; please cite the accompanying paper.

GPRNK Index

Monthly · 1995-01 – 2025-10 · 370 observations · CSV, Excel · CC BY 4.0

A news-based index of geopolitical risk arising from North Korea, built from article counts in 18 South Korean newspapers and broadcasters. It rises around nuclear tests, missile launches and armed clashes, and falls around summits. The release includes the headline index, its negative and positive components, and four subtopic series — military tensions, sanctions, talks, and economic cooperation.

The GPRNK index plotted monthly from 1995 to 2025, with peaks at nuclear tests and troughs around inter-Korean summits.

From Lee, Lee and Jung (2026), Applied Economics Letters. Open the dataset →

North Korean Marketization Index

Five periods · before 2000 – 2016–2020 · CSV · CC BY 4.0

How far the North Korean economy has moved toward the market in three dimensions — price liberalization, privatization and financial development. Each score is a share of respondents rescaled to run 0–5, so a 5 would mean everyone reported the behaviour. It applies the method of Jung, Yang and Kim (2022) to the Ministry of Unification’s published survey of 6,351 defectors.

Line chart of North Korean marketization across five periods to 2020: price liberalization rising to 2.91, privatization climbing steadily to 1.09, and financial development almost flat at 0.28.

Method from Jung, Yang and Kim (2022), Asian Perspective. Open the dataset →