UNSEEN LAWS: A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH KOREA'S LEGAL SYSTEM

While little North Korean legislation is available to scholars outside the DPRK, the legislative numbering usually given with every legal text allows us to measure the activity of all major institutions of the legal system. This study pioneers an approach to North Korean legal methods with a data set drawn from 4,000 legal changes enacted from 1945 to 2017 and collected from a large range of sources. Through this method, phases of higher activity can be identified for various institutions that were directly linked to reform efforts also reflected in other available evidence. Additionally, the position of Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-song, ) and the effects of the succession to Kim Jong Il (Kim Chong'il, ) can be traced through the legal system.