Japan Times:
North Korea’s economy last year is estimated to have contracted the most since 2007 as leader Kim Jong Un marshaled resources for nuclear tests and ballistic missile development.
The gross domestic product of the totalitarian state fell 1.1 percent in 2015 from a year earlier, when it expanded 1 percent, according to calculations released by South Korea’s central bank Friday.
Per capita income in the North was 1.39 million won ($1,223), or about 4.5 percent that of its southern neighbor’s. In the early 1990s, North Koreans’ income was about one-seventh that of South Koreans’.
The Bank of Korea in Seoul said it estimates North Korea’s economic growth by using “raw data compiled by related organizations” without providing details. The calculation has limits, with the bank using South Korea’s data to substitute for information it cannot gather like prices when assessing nominal gross domestic product.
“North Korea had a drought since 2014, which weighed on agricultural production and hydroelectric power generation, which the economy relies a lot on,” said Kim Hwa Yong, a senior economist at the Bank of Korea. “Trade volume also fell, as exports to China in products like iron ore declined due to oversupply issues.”
In September 2015, North Korea’s state media said the regime threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. and pledged to launch a satellite with missile technology.
