As the Soviet Union and eastern European countries started to fall apart after 1989, North Korea and Cuba experienced severe economic crisis. This period can be identified as Arduous March in North Korea and Special Period in Cuba. An adjustment policy had to be implemented to overcome the economic crisis. In the beginning of the crisis both countries started to introduce an external economic open-door policy. However, while Cuba implemented an extensive internal economic reform policy in the early 1990s, North Korea finally did in the 2000s. The differences in the timing of economic reform policy undertaking were due to internal political problems and the initial condition of both countries’ economies. This study is a research on the differences of the initial condition of economies between two countries. As the result of research, I found that North Korea has a adverse natural environment to reform and opening compare to Cuba. North Korea also had a little experiences on the capitalist system. Moreover, North Korea already had gone too far to the socialism and has a little experience in reforming the classical socialistic economy. North Korea's industrial infrastructure was concentrated on heavy chemical industry and it's second economy was not developed. So we can conclude that North Korea's economical condition in the 1990's was very bad for reforming it's economy compare to Cuba.

As the Soviet Union and eastern European countries started to fall apart after 1989, North Korea and Cuba experienced severe economic crisis. This period can be identified as Arduous March in North Korea and Special Period in Cuba. An adjustment policy had to be implemented to overcome the economic crisis. In the beginning of the crisis both countries started to introduce an external economic open-door policy. However, while Cuba implemented an extensive internal economic reform policy in the early 1990s, North Korea finally did in the 2000s. The differences in the timing of economic reform policy undertaking were due to internal political problems and the initial condition of both countries’ economies. This study is a research on the differences of the initial condition of economies between two countries. As the result of research, I found that North Korea has a adverse natural environment to reform and opening compare to Cuba. North Korea also had a little experiences on the capitalist system. Moreover, North Korea already had gone too far to the socialism and has a little experience in reforming the classical socialistic economy. North Korea's industrial infrastructure was concentrated on heavy chemical industry and it's second economy was not developed. So we can conclude that North Korea's economical condition in the 1990's was very bad for reforming it's economy compare to Cuba.