SEOUL, KOREA - A study said the last year's per-capita GDP of North Korea was US$854.

 

This is only 3.6 percent of the South's per-person income of $23,838. Hyundai Economic Research Institute said in a research report "2013 Estimates on North Korea's GDP" on March 14 that the North's per-capita nominal GDP in 2013 was $854, up $39 (4.8%) from the previous year. This is a far cry from other communist countries such as China ($6,569), Vietnam ($1,896), and Laos ($1,490). Countries with comparable income level as North Korea's include Bangladesh ($899) and Myanmar ($915).

 

The level of sophistication in North Korea's agriculture, mining and manufacturing, and foreign trade is almost like that of the South in the early 1970s. As of 2012, the North's annual output per farm household was about 0.5 ton, almost comparable to that of the South in 1970 when the corresponding figure was 0.48 ton. The ratio of population engaged in farm work in total population was 36.8 percent (8,573,000).

 

North Korea's output in cement and chemical fertilizer was 6,446,000 tons and 476,000 tons, respectively, which are almost same as the South in 1970 when the figures were 5,822,000 tons and 590,000 tons. The output in steel and automobile in the North is equivalent to South Korea's 1.8 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

 

Due to international sanctions and self-imposed isolation, North Korea's foreign trade is meager at best. As of 2012, its exports and imports were $2.88 billion and $3.93 billion, respectively, whose combined figure is equivalent to the South's 0.6 percent.

 

Kim Cheong-gu, senior fellow at Hyundai Economic Research Institute who was the principal author of the report, said, "As the economic gap between the South and North widens, the South's burden will get bigger once the two Koreas achieve unification. As a way to close the gap, he suggested building steel works, oil refineries, electric power plants, and infrastructures. In addition, he recommended that humanitarian assistance be continued to feed children and provide drugs.