The Future of the Two Koreas is a must-read, have technical criticisms of the BOK's methodology, including its use of South Korean prices and weightings as a benchmark for the North's very different economic system. Its Pyongyang office witnessed more nuanced ups and downs in the 1990s, and Michell reckons Northern GNP shrank overall by 10 percent over this period rather than the BOK's one-third. We're on safer ground with trade. Here North Korea looks to be doing better. The BOK noted an upsurge in capital goods like power generation equipment, excavators and trucks.
Exports are key to any real recovery, and to pay for imports.
Castro welcomes tourism and foreign investment, lets the US dollar circulate, and allows some private enterprise. Kim Jong-il, by contrast, has yet to bite any of those bullets seriously. One country, two planets. Ltd. All rights reserved.