Pictured Above (Google Earth): State Planning Commission
KCNA reports on the anniversary of the State planning Commission:
A national meeting was held at the Central Youth Hall Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of state planning and statistic organs.
President Kim Il Sung was very busy building new democratic Korea after its liberation but founded the first central planning and statistic organ on March 6, Juche 35 (1946) on the basis of feats and experience gained in the flames of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.
The establishment of the central planning and statistic organ helped start a new history of planned economy, a new history of popular statistics which could put overall economic development of the country under control in a uniform way and develop it at a rapid tempo.
Under the wise leadership of the President, the socialist system of planning and statistic work was established, ranks of officials were built and the material and technical foundation was consolidated. As a result, the socialist planning and statistics have performed their mission and role as a powerful weapon for the revolution and construction.
It would be nice to know how busy these guys still are.
The DPRK ceased publishing economic performance statistics (Net Material Product-NMP tables) in 1965, and the last state budget was announced for FY 2001 (21,570,800,000 won), but no budget numbers have been reported since, only percentage increases in relevant areas. Today, the DPRK releases economic data only on rare occasions, but aside from the lack of availability, there are numerous other problems with using the DPRK’s economic data to obtain credible insight into the North Korean economy.
I post DPRK economic statistics sources here.
