The situation north of the 38th parallel was different. Kim
Il-Sung, a leader of anti-Japanese communist partisans
during the Second World War, established himself as
dictator by 1947 and, with the help of the Soviet Union,
introduced a rigid form of centrally planned economy as
part of the so-called Juche system. Private property was
outlawed, and markets were banned. Freedoms were
curtailed not only in the marketplace, but in every sphere of