YIKUS Issue Brief No. 168 Cho Jin Soo (Senior Researcher, Institute for North Korean Studies, Yonsei University) In January 2024, Unification Minister Kim Yung Ho stated during the New Year’s greeting of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council that “in North Korea, collectivism is declining as individualism grows, and mobile phones along with other digital devices are becoming more widespread.”1 If so, what is the essence of the weakening collectivism and emerging individ