• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.53
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• pp.9-59
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• 2017

Recently, the aspect of regulating the legal system in North Korea has increased in quantity and shows the improvement of the evaluation of the lack of systematic consistency in the past. North Korean legislation has been negatively criticized for its lack of function and role of the legislative body and ambiguity of the legal system. In particular, the newly adopted "Legislation Law" in relation to the revision of the legislative system of North Korea contains important and clear contents to understand the legislative system and procedures of North Korea. The contents of the "Legislation Law" can be found a glimpse of the process by which the framework and procedures of the North Korean legislative process are organized more systematically. The North Korean legislation provides legal and institutional grounds for promoting internal and external policies under the Kim jong-un's regime. North Korea is focused on the nuclear issue, so there is limited information on other areas. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to examine the legislative theory and system of North Korea, and outline the theoretical basis of North Korea's emphasis on strengthening socialist judicial life, the socialist legal system, and the state theory of socialist rule of law. In addition, it can be analysed the content of actual legal reform in light of North Korea's legislative theory and system. In the study, it will examine the legislative system of North Korea and its characteristics by examining the legislative process and legislative process of North Korea. Moreover, it can be compared the contents of the Legislative Law of China with the legislative process of the DPRK and examine its characteristics. We will look at the challenges to the legislative system in North Korea and look into the future direction of the legislation. Kim jong-un's announcement of the revised legislation until recently through the publication of the 2016 Supplementary Codes is an important data for the current state of the North Korean legislation. This is because it confirms the content of the laws and regulations already known through "Democratic Chosun(a newspaper issued by North Korea Cabinet)'s statutory interpretation." However, in the case of laws and regulations related to the North Korean political system, it is still a remnant of the lagging legislation that the announcement is delayed, or it remains undisclosed or confidential. North Korean laws are developed and changed according to the changes of the times. In particular, the contents of the maintenance of foreign investment and the foreign economic law system and related internal legal system are found to change in accordance with the development direction of the socioeconomic system. If the direction of Kim jong-un's regime is to be expanded to the path of reform and opening up in the economic sector, the revision of the related laws and regulations will accelerate. Securing the transparency and objectivity of the North Korean legislative process and procedures will help to broaden the understanding of the inter-Korean legal system and to seek institutional measures for inter-Korean integration. In the future, in-depth research on the North Korean legal system will be emphasized as a basis for ultimately forming a unified Korea's legal system.