South Korea refers to the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, which is now South Korea, while North Korea refers to the northern country of the Korean Peninsula, which is now North Korea. The economic comparison between the two countries is as follows: Comparison Table of gdp per capita between North Korea and South Korea (unit: US dollars)

In p>196, North Korea was 253, and South Korea was 82, the former was three times that of the latter

In p>197, North Korea was 4.

in p>198: 7 in North Korea and 1592 in South Korea, the latter was about one time ahead;

In p>199, North Korea was 98, South Korea was 6482, and North Korea was more than 6 times behind.

in p>2, North Korea was 13, South Korea was 884, and North Korea was 78 times behind.

in p>24, North Korea was 86, South Korea was 12431, and North Korea was 9 times behind.

after the war, North Korea's economic development experienced a development process of first prosperity and then decline. Before 198s, North Korea's economic development level was no less than that of Asian socialist countries such as China and Viet Nam, and even not lower than that of South Korea. In 196, South Korea's GDP and per capita GDP were only 4% and 55% of North Korea's. In 1975, South Korea's GDP and per capita GDP were 9% and 84% of North Korea's respectively. It was not until 198 that South Korea just caught up with North Korea. South Korea's GDP and per capita GDP are $6.3 billion and $1,589, respectively, while North Korea's two figures are $41.3 billion and $1,161, respectively. Since then, South Korea has developed rapidly, leaving North Korea far behind. After 199s, North Korea's economic development went from bad to worse. From 199 to 1998, there was a negative growth for nine consecutive years. They are -3.7, -5.2, -7.6, -4.3, -1.7, -4.5, -3., -6.8 and -1.1 respectively. It was not until 1999 that there began to be a positive growth of 6.2.

after the 199s, with the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, North Korea's trade environment deteriorated day by day, its foreign exchange reserves became less and less, and its imports of raw materials, fuels and crude oil plummeted, which led to a sharp decline in metallurgical, coal and electric power production, and the whole industrial production was in a serious recession. From 199 to 1998, the coal output decreased from 33.15 million tons to 18.6 million tons; The power generation is reduced from 22.7 billion kilowatts to 17 billion kilowatts; Steel production decreased from 3.36 million tons to 945, tons; Crude oil imports decreased from 2.52 million tons to 5, tons. Due to the serious shortage of raw materials, fuel and electricity, most large and medium-sized enterprises are in a state of suspension or semi-suspension, and the equipment operation rate of enterprises is only 2%. After entering 1999, North Korea's industrial production began to show signs of improvement. According to Bai Nanshun, Foreign Minister of North Korea's Cabinet, North Korea's economy has turned around in an all-round way, and thousands of factories and enterprises across the country have normalized their production. In the first half of 1999, gross industrial output value increased by 2% compared with the same period last year. According to statistics, in 2, North Korea's electricity production increased by 14% year-on-year, coal production increased by 113% year-on-year, and more than 2,5 factories and enterprises exceeded the production plan for the first half of the year.

in the 196s, North Korea made proud achievements in grain production. In 1964, North Korea produced 5 million tons of grain, with a population of only 12 million at that time, which not only made the people comfortable, but also had surplus grain for export, which was called "economic miracle" by international public opinion. In the middle and late 197s, North Korea's annual grain output exceeded 7 million tons, in the first half of 198s it exceeded 8 million tons, and even reached 1 million tons in 1984. However, from the 199s until 2, North Korea's self-produced grain averaged around 4 million tons per year. In 2, the total grain output of North Korea was about 3.59 million tons, which was about 15% lower than that of 1999 (4.22 million tons). Among them, the output of rice in 1999 was 1.63 million tons, which decreased to 1.42 million tons in 2, corn from 1.92 million tons to 1.44 million tons, soybean from 13, tons to 12, tons, and only sweet potato increased from 31, tons to 39, tons, an increase of about 25.8%. At present, the total population of North Korea is about 24 million. According to the average grain consumption of 46 grams per person per day, the minimum annual grain demand in North Korea should be around 4 million tons. North Korea's annual normal grain demand is about 7.46 million tons, including 4.8 million tons of rations, 1.2 million tons of industrial grain and 1.4 million tons of feed. It can be seen that North Korea lacks about 2.5-3 million tons of food every year. Since 1991, it has imported about 8-1.6 million tons of grain every year.

since the 199s, the international economic environment has changed greatly at any time, and North Korea's foreign trade has been greatly impacted. The Soviet Union has always been North Korea's largest trading partner. In 199, the trade volume between the DPRK and the Soviet Union was US$ 2.56 billion, accounting for 54.2% of the total trade volume of the DPRK. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the trade volume between the DPRK and Russia decreased sharply to US$ 47 million in 1991, a decrease of more than 8% over the previous year. Since then, the trade volume has been decreasing year by year. In the afternoon of 1995, the trade volume between the DPRK and Russia was only US$ 23 million, and its proportion in the total trade volume of the DPRK dropped to 11%. In the past five years, the scale of the DPRK-Russia trade has been reduced by more than 5%, thus causing a serious decline in the DPRK's foreign trade, worsening the terms of trade and a sharp decline in import and export trade. In 1991, the total trade volume dropped from $4.78 billion in 199 to $2.72 billion, in 1992 to $2.66 billion, in 1993 to $2.64 billion, in 1994 to $2.11 billion, in 1995 to $2.5 billion and in 1998 to $1.442 billion. In 1998, North Korea's foreign trade volume was US$ 1.442 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 33.7%, of which the import volume was US$ 88 million, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%. The export value was US$ 559 million, a year-on-year decrease of 38.2%. This is the first time since the 199s that North Korea's trade volume has fallen below $1.5 billion. In 1999, it was $1.479 billion. In 2, it rebounded slightly (US$ 1.97 billion), and in the first half of 21, it surged by 8%. Among them, the export of steel products to China increased by 241%, and the import of mineral fuels and grains from China increased by 112% and 89% respectively.

since 2, North Korea has shifted the focus of its strategy of strengthening the country to economic construction. However, due to the current situation of no war and no peace on the peninsula, it is impossible for North Korea to devote all its energy to economic construction. In the future, the heavy burden of military expenditure will continue to drag down the development of North Korea's national economy, and North Korea can only continue to adopt the policy of "building and military simultaneously". North Korea has maintained a high investment in heavy industry directly related to military industry since the 196s, resulting in a serious imbalance in the economic structure, while military production has developed rapidly, consuming huge national wealth, directly crowding out not only agriculture and light industry, but also the production of civilian means of production. At present, the total population of North Korea is more than 23 million, and it has 1.55 million active regular troops, 189, paramilitary troops and 4.7 million reserves. Its troops rank fifth in the world. According to foreign reports, in recent years, North Korea's annual military expenditure accounts for about 2-25% of its GNP. In 1994, its military expenditure was $5.66 billion, accounting for 26.7% of GNP. This huge military expenditure cannot but seriously hinder and delay the normal process of North Korea's modernization.

The drastic changes in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union have caused North Korea to lose the strategic material sources and major commodity export markets that it originally maintained in cooperation with these countries. After these countries stopped barter trade with North Korea, North Korea did not have enough foreign exchange to continue importing strategic materials such as oil, cotton and coke. And these countries open their markets to western countries, which makes many North Korean goods lose their competitiveness. The economic blockade and sanctions imposed by the United States on North Korea have further narrowed North Korea's international economic space. After the Korean War broke out, the United States imposed a comprehensive economic blockade and sanctions on North Korea. After the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, under the pressure of the United States demanding to stop trading with North Korea, or the western countries will not provide loans, countries in Eastern Europe and other countries have stopped normal trade with North Korea, resulting in a situation where North Korea's competitive goods have nowhere to export. From 1995 to 1997, serious floods, droughts and other natural disasters have dealt a serious blow to North Korea's industrial and agricultural production. The shortage of energy and raw materials and the paralysis of industrial production make it difficult for North Korea not only to effectively resist natural disasters, but also to cut down forests as industrial and civil energy, thus causing a vicious circle of massive soil erosion and frequent natural disasters. The nuclear confrontation with the United States has made the security issue the most urgent issue, which has made it impossible for North Korea to adjust its economic structure in time according to the changes in the international situation. As a result, it has worsened its economic difficulties and gradually reduced the enthusiasm of the people for labor production.

The solution is the same as Vietnam: accelerate the pace of market economy reform, and the national policy focuses on economic construction. For example, disarmament and decentralization, changing the mode of highly centralized power, gradually decentralizing economic management, adopting the system of distribution according to work, improving the enthusiasm of national labor production, encouraging the development of individual and private economy, and expanding the role of the market in commodity circulation.

the course of Korean economic development for more than half a century can be divided into three stages.

(1) the period of turbulence and recovery (1945-1961). After Korea got rid of Japanese colonial rule, it experienced large-scale political, social and economic turmoil. The government established in 1948 made great efforts to resume production and curb inflation and achieved certain results. However, the Korean War broke out in June 195, which nearly destroyed its production facilities. After the armistice in 1953, with the economic assistance of the United States and the United Nations, after nearly three years of recovery, the reconstruction work was largely completed in 1956, and hyperinflation was controlled. Although it is generally believed that the 195s was a period of economic stagnation in South Korea, in 1954, the South Korean government implemented the rural land ownership reform of "paid expropriation" and "paid distribution", that is, the government bought land from landowners and distributed it to farmers who actually cultivated. As a result, a tenant farming system replaced the traditional income sharing tenant farming system, which improved the productivity of the agricultural sector. In fact, several important policy objectives implemented by the government during this period became the basis of rapid economic growth in the 196s. From 1953 to 1962, the Korean economy grew at an average annual rate of 3.7%, and the per capita GNP grew at an average annual rate of .7%.

(2) high-speed growth stage (1962 ~ 1992). In May 1961, after park chung-hee's military coup came to power, it began to promote the planned development of the Korean economy with the strategies of government-led, export-oriented and unbalanced development. Since 1962, six five-year economic development plans have been implemented continuously.

this stage is subdivided into three development periods. The 196 s can be described as the formation period of export-oriented economy. During the first five-year plan period, as one of the steps to revitalize exports, introduce foreign capital and introduce technology, South Korea and Japan normalized their diplomatic relations in 1965. In the 196s, the growth rates of South Korea's gross national product and gross domestic product both reached 7.6%. From 1962 to 197, the gross national product increased from $2.3 billion to $8.1 billion, an increase of 2.5 times, and the per capita gross national product increased from $87 to $252. In 1971, when the Second Five-Year Plan ended, the export volume increased from 54.8 million dollars in 1962 to 1.68 billion dollars.

The 197s was a period when South Korea carried out the third and fourth five-year economic development plans, continued to promote self-reliant economic construction and solved uneven development, and it was also a period of heavy chemical industry development. During this period, in view of the changes of economic conditions at home and abroad in South Korea, the goals of "balanced development in all regions", "epoch-making expansion of exports" and "heavy chemical industry construction" were put forward, which improved the unbalanced development between regions and industries. In order to continue to expand exports, the heavy chemical industry development plan was formulated in 1973, with shipbuilding, automobile, steel, petrochemical and non-ferrous metals as key development industries and large-scale investment in heavy chemical industry. During this period, the average annual growth rate of gross national product was 11.2%, setting a record for the economic growth rate of developing countries during this period. At the same time, the industrial structure has taken a big step towards industrialization. In 1976, the proportion of the secondary industry was 31% higher than that of the primary industry, which was 24.8%. During the Fourth Five-Year Plan period (1977 ~ 1981), the average annual growth rate of GNP was only 5.8%. There are many reasons for this. The second oil crisis in 1979, the assassination of President park chung-hee, the Gwangju incident in 198, and the sharp reduction of grain production caused the investment in heavy chemical industry to get out of control, which made the national economy out of balance. Nevertheless, it should be said that the Korean economy maintained rapid growth throughout the 197s. The government has made major adjustments to the industrial structure, and the heavy chemical industry has developed by leaps and bounds. Agricultural production and rural landscape have undergone tremendous changes under the impetus of the "New Village Movement". However, due to the mistakes of the authorities in macro-control, there have been problems such as excessive industrial investment and low operating rate of industrial equipment. From 1971 to 1979, the gross national product increased from $9.5 billion to $61.4 billion, an increase of 5.5 times; The per capita GNP increased from $288 to $1,662; Exports soared from $1.68 billion to $15.6 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 39.7%.

in the 198s, in view of the changes in the international economic environment and the new situation of domestic economic fluctuation, the Korean government put forward the policy of "stability, efficiency and balance", reformed the national economy and sought development through economic policy and structural adjustment. During the Fifth Plan (1982-1986) and the Sixth Plan (1987-1991), the average growth rate of GDP was 9.2% and 9.3% respectively. In the first half of 198s, the growth rate of South Korea's exports exceeded that of imports, and the trade deficit gradually decreased, and finally a surplus appeared in 1986. From 1984 to 1985, the trade friction between South Korea and the developed countries in its export market slowed down the export growth. However, after 1986, it entered the so-called "three lows" period of low exchange rate, low oil price and low international interest rate, which led to a substantial increase in exports for several consecutive years (14% in 1986, 36% in 1987 and 28% in 1988), and the economic growth rate reached 11% for three consecutive years. In 1991, the per capita GNP reached $6,757 < P >. The seventh five-year plan for economic development was implemented in 1992. However, Jin Yongsan, the first civilian-elected president in Korean history, who was elected in December 1992, put forward the "Five-year Plan for New Economy (1993-1998)" after taking office in February 1993. In this plan, administrative reform, industrial structure and financial system reform are proposed. Established diplomatic relations with China in 1992. Due to the strong price competitiveness of South Korea, the substantial increase in exports to Japan and the increase in equipment investment, the real GDP increased by 8.6% in 1994. In 1995, this good momentum was also maintained, with the growth even exceeding that of 1994, reaching 8.9%, and the per capita GDP exceeded 1, US dollars (1,37 US dollars). In 1996, due to the appreciation of the yen