North Korea claims to be the first country in the world to have abolished taxation on individuals and households. This is no longer true, but back in 1974, when the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) abolished income tax, it certainly was.

Yet, in a command economy like North Korea, where pretty much all goods and services were rationed, this statement is rather misleading – taxes were only abolished when the state had control over everything money could buy anyway. The story, however, does not begin in 1974, it begins far back in the past in the late 1940s.