The debate about whether the last bastion of Stalinism in Asia, North Korea, is gearing up for reform intensified last week after leader Kim Jong-un called for radical economic renewal and an end to conflict with the South.

“Let us bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant with the same spirit and mettle as were displayed in conquering space,” he said, in what was the first new year speech from Pyongyang’s insular leadership in nearly two decades.

The message from Kim, broadcast on state television, did not give any specifics on how he planned to boost the moribund economy, but he did make a link between scientific advance and economic reform.

There are plans for computers in every school and digital electronics in every workplace.

“The industrial revolution in the new century is, in essence, a scientific and technological revolution, and breaking through the cutting-edge is a short cut to the building of an economic giant,” he said, in a speech delivered from behind a massive podium emblazoned with the Korean Workers’ Party motif of a hammer and sickle with a brush in the middle.

Then came the news that Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt is preparing to travel to North Korea on a private, humanitarian mission led by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.

The number of people with internet access in North Korea is very low, restricted to a percentage of the ruling elite, and what access there is is extremely restricted. Last January saw the announcement of the Ten Year State Strategy Plan for Economic Development, and 2012 was forecast to be the first year of North Korea’s “kangsong taeguk”, or “strong and prosperous nation”.

In recent years, there have been a number of experimental economic zones set up near the Chinese border, such as Rason, and there have been several joint ventures between state-owned and South Korean firms.

There have been indications during last year that the collective farming model, which regularly stops short of feeding the country’s 24 million people, was being reformed. Instead of handing over their entire produce to the state, local Cooperative Farm People’s Committees are reportedly allowing farmers to hang on to a surplus of about 30 per cent of their harvest.

North Korea used to have a bigger economy that the South in the 1970s, but the withdrawal of Soviet assistance in the 1980s led to it moving backwards.

In 2011, North Korea’s national income per capita was about €916 while South Korea’s was €17,912, according to the data from the Bank of Korea in Seoul.