북한 형법에 나타난 개인재산 침해범죄의 특징

Though North Korea adheres to the principle of co-ownership of the whole national and societal property, it partly acknowledges personal property rights of citizens and expresses the crimes against personal property rights clearly to protect personal property and ownership. Interestingly, it distinguishes the crimes of infringing national property and personal property. The regulations related to the violation of property rights in North Korean criminal law are still simple and naive in their contents and legal descriptions compared to South Korean counterparts. However, those regulations don’t seem to fall short of their immediate aims of protecting personal property rights of North Koreans under the socialist economy. Despite the black markets and individuals beginning to possess personal property in North Korea, their economic life cannot be compared to South Korean economic life operated in much more complex ways. In addition, the regulations which are not strictly enforced would create a gap between changing economic realities and regulations, which is supposed to be filled by expanded application and teleological interpretation of the law to support the communist party’s ideology and policies. In this respect, North Korea cannot be called a constitutional society, that is, a law-governed country. Considering the fact that law follows realities and the contents of laws are filled in reflecting the realities afterwards, regulations about crimes violating personal property rights are expected to undergo gradual changes and evolutions along with the North Korean economy.