Is it possible, however, that there might now be a bit of economic sunlight piercing the gloom? Here are some excerpts from a report in the Wall Street Journal by Dasl Yoon and Timothy W. Martin.
North Korea is the world’s most unlikely growth story. Its economy is flourishing in ways not seen in years, aided by arms sales and troop deployments to Russia, supplies and financing from China, and the ability to flout international sanctions to import more energy, components and materials. …visitors describe a North Korea unrecognizable from the past, especially its capital, Pyongyang, where Kim and the country’s elite live. …Last year, North Korea built 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang—more than either Los Angeles or Chicago. …North Korea now shines roughly three times as bright at night as it did five years ago… North Korea’s economy expanded 3.7% in 2024, its fastest rate in eight years, according to the most recent figures from South Korea’s central bank, which uses spy-agency data to produce its estimate.
I was dumbfounded to read that North Korea’s “economy is flourishing.”
At the risk of understatement, that seems like a gross overstatement.
Here’s an updated version of my 2011 chart, based on the latest Maddison numbers. There’s not data for the past couple of years, but it hardly looks like North Korea’s living standards have budged over the past few decades.
Heck, even if you add 3.7 percent for 2024 (as well as for 2023 and 2025), what we’re looking at is suffering rather than flourishing.
To be fair, the article does cite some unfavorable data.
Outside the capital city, North Korea remains poor, with nearly half of its 26 million residents malnourished, according to a U.N. report. Its yearly gross domestic product is less than 1% of the U.S. total. …The Kim regime fortified its energy supply and access to construction materials by sending munitions and more than 15,000 troops to Russia’s front lines in the war in Ukraine. About one-third of those soldiers were killed or injured. The arms sales have netted Pyongyang billions of dollars… The Kim regime fortified its energy supply and access to construction materials by sending munitions and more than 15,000 troops to Russia’s front lines in the war in Ukraine. About one-third of those soldiers were killed or injured. The arms sales have netted Pyongyang billions of dollars… North Korea became a munitions supplier to Moscow, generating more than $10 billion from the summer of 2023 to the end of last year, according to INSS, the think tank—a big boost to an economy with an estimated GDP of about $27 billion.
It’s also worth emphasizing that much of the recent uptick (from a horribly low level) is merely due to selling weapons and soldiers to Russia.
Not exactly a sustainable model for long-run growth.
Let’s now look at a few additional observations about the human cost of North Korean socialism.
Such as this data from a 2008 study published by the National Library of Medicine.
This paper investigates height and weight differences between the two Koreas by comparing national anthropometric data published by the South Korean Research Institute of Standard and Science with United Nations survey data collected inside North Korea in 2002. For socioeconomic reasons, pre-school children raised in the developing country of North Korea are up to 13 cm shorter and up to 7 kg lighter than children who were brought up in South Korea–an OECD member. North Korean women were also found to weigh up to 9 kg less than their Southern counterparts.
And here’s a 2020 headline from a story in a U.K.-based newspaper.
There’s not even a need to cite any details. The headline tells you everything you need to know.
I’ll close with some excerpts from a jaw-dropping report in the New York Post by Gabrielle Fahmy.
The latest propaganda campaign from a radical New York City-based pro-North Korea nonprofit bizarrely pitches the Hermit Kingdom as a utopia where housing is free. …Nodutdol, a Midtown-based group whose name means stepping stone in Korean, has worked to radicalize American leftists into supporting North Korea through their mutual hatred of “US imperialism.” …in reality, housing in the land of dictator Kim Jong Un is built by the state and allocated based on job, status and loyalty to the regime… While military and party officials — including Ri Chun Hi, the country’s most prolific state propaganda anchor, known as “the pink lady,” who received a luxury home in 2022 — are granted preferential housing, ordinary people typically get the bottom of the barrel, with decrepit homes that often lack electricity.
Wow, I’ve written before about communist dupes, but this must be an all-time low. I thought for sure this was an April Fool’s joke, but it’s apparently serious.
