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Broken down North Korea economy stuck in slow lane
Real estate news By Jon Herskovitz
Thu Oct 4, 2007 1:15pm IST
Leaders of South Korea's biggest companies on Thursday saw the pride of North Korea's auto industry, which turns out vehicles named "Whistle" and "Cuckoo" at an annual rate equal to what Hyundai Motor makes in three hours. The visit underscored the economic gulf between the two countries formed from the ashes of World War Two and then devastated by their fratricidal 1950-1953 Korean War.
South Korea has emerged as one of the world's economic giants, while the communist North, once richer than its neighbour, has become a basket case. The North's GDP -- estimated to be 21.2 trillion won ($23.21 billion) by the South's central bank -- ranks around that of war-torn Sri Lanka, and is less than 3 percent of the South Korean economy. "The most important thing in unification is getting rid of the economic gap," said Kim Young-yoon at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification.
The Bank of Korea said the North's destitute economy sank further last year and is weaker than it was nearly 20 years ago. It has been crippled by decades of mismanagement and further weakened by devastating floods a few months ago and U.N sanctions over its first nuclear test almost exactly a year ago. At only the second summit of the leaders of the two Koreas, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun pledged economic cooperation to rebuild parts of the North's dilapidated infrastructure. South Korea points to a joint industrial park in Kaesong, just north of one of the world's most militarised borders and created after the first summit in 2000, as an example of economic integration teaching North Koreans
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