Professional Affiliation

Professor in International Relations, University of Sussex, United Kingdom

Expert Bio

Prof. Kevin Gray’s research interests relate to the political economy of development in East Asia. He has researched widely on the region, and in particular, on the political economy of North Korea. His research has been published in in Review of International Political Economy, Journal of Contemporary Asia, The Pacific Review, North Korean Review, Globalizations, New Political Economy, Third World Quarterly and New Left Review. 

His is also the author of Korean Workers and Neoliberal Globalisation (Routledge, 2008), Labour and Development in East Asia: Social Forces and Passive Revolution (Routledge, 2015). He has co-edited volumes on (with Barry Gills) People Power in an era of global crisis: rebellion, resistance and liberation (2012); (with Craig Murphy) Rising Powers and the Future of Global Governance (2013); (with Barry Gills) Rising Powers and South-South Cooperation (2017). Most recently, he is co-author (with Jong-Woon Lee) of North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development (2021).

Wilson Center Project

North Korean Reform and the Development-Security Nexus under Kim Jong Un

Project Summary

This project seeks to examine in what ways and to what extent economic reform is currently underway in North Korea. It will explore how the current reforms under the Kim Jong Un government compare to previous economic reforms efforts as well as how they compare to earlier experiments with market socialism in China and Vietnam as well as in the former Soviet bloc. In addition, the project aims to examine the mutual relations between North Korea's economic reforms and the state’s external economic relations and political and security postures. It is envisaged that the answers to such questions will have important implications for international policy towards North Korea, including international sanctions policy, as well as for scholarly debates around post-communist transitions, international sanctions, and development more broadly.

Major Publications

Publications:

Kevin Gray (with Jong-Woon Lee), North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Kevin Gray, “Turning Marx on His Head?: North Korean Juche as Developmental Nationalism,” in Critical Asian Studies, (55:2, 2023), pp.261-281.

Kevin Gray (with Jong-Woon Lee), "Cause for optimism? Financial sanctions and the rise of the Sino-North Korean border economy." Review of International Political Economy, (24: 3, 2017), pp. 424-453.