Assigning a grass-root NGO role to legitimate organizations as resident watch-dogs in negotiating carbon benefits derived from multilateral funding

The private sector in North Korea is virtually non-existent, and typical forms of grass-root Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) required for forestry carbon trading are not recognized. The state regulates the local forest communities and labor market through central planning and control. Previous researches tend to target grass-root NGOs that were established voluntarily after democratization, while implicitly excluding a state-supervised organization in which residents are members. This paper demonstrates that the carbon benefits secured by forestry projects could be negotiated by a non-voluntary state-supervised organization initially established as a resident watch-dog. Since state-supervised organizations in recipient countries can play a key role in educating grassroots citizens on the true role of NGOs, originated from democratized western countries, this paper will be a valuable reference for accommodating beneficiary obligations specified in multilateral funding. Although North Korea has been selected as a case study for this paper, this kind of peaceful intervention is relevant to other countries that face similar state-supervised resident organizations in implementing multilateral funding projects.