The respected Comrade
"The government of the Republic should perfect the legal system of the State and intensify the role of law in State and social life."
In the DPRK, the External Economic Arbitration Act was amended and supplemented in a comprehensive way in September 2024, in order to perfect the system of external economic arbitration in keeping with the acceleration of the national economic development and the expansion and development of external economic relations.
The most notable change in the amended and supplemented External Economic Arbitration Act is the new introduction of the regulations on rapid arbitration procedure.
So far, the DPRK has set it as the basic principle of dispute settlement to ensure accuracy, objectivity, impartiality and promptness on a scientific basis in settling the external economic disputes and perfected the arbitration system.
The rapid arbitration procedure that has been newly laid down in the External Economic Arbitration Act amended and supplemented last year can be effectively applied to the settlement of external economic disputes in the DPRK, while keeping up with the trends in the development of international arbitration law worldwide.
First of all, a new legal definition of the rapid arbitration procedure was added to Article 2 of the "External Economic Arbitration Act of the DPRK".
Article 2 of the External Economic Arbitration Act stipulates that "8. The rapid arbitration procedure is an arbitration procedure in which the arbitral panel consisting of one arbitrator expedites the dispute case by shortening the date of arbitration procedure according to the arbitration rules of the arbitration committee concerned."
According to this article, the rapid arbitration procedure refers to a new arbitration procedure for shortening the date of procedure in handling arbitration cases and expediting the dispute case by setting up the separate arbitral panel.
In addition, a new provision on the application of the rapid arbitration procedure was added to Article 50 of the "External Economic Arbitration Act of the DPRK".
Article 50 of the External Economic Arbitration Act (Application of Rapid Arbitration Procedure) stipulates, "The Arbitration Committee may apply the rapid arbitration procedure in view of the features of the arbitration case. The specific objects and methods for applying the rapid arbitration procedure must be chosen, depending on the arbitration rules of the arbitration committee concerned."
According to it, the Korean International Trade Arbitration Committee, the Korean Maritime Arbitration Committee and the Korean Software Arbitration Committee amended and supplemented the arbitration rules and added the rules on the rapid arbitration procedure respectively.
Thus, the DPRK newly added the rules on the rapid arbitration procedure to the External Economic Arbitration Act and further elaborated them in the arbitration rules of the arbitration committee concerned. In this way, it provided a legal guarantee for fully ensuring the interests of the parties to the dispute by thoroughly ensuring the promptness as well as accuracy, objectivity and impartiality on a scientific basis in settling the external economic disputes.
