After the war of Korea's GDP estimation, North Korea's economic development experienced a development process of prosperity first and then decline. Before 1980s, the economic development level of North Korea was no less than that of China, Viet Nam and other Asian socialist countries, and even not less than that of South Korea. 1960, South Korea's GDP and per capita GDP were only 40% and 55% of North Korea's. 1975, South Korea's GDP and per capita GDP were 90% and 84% of North Korea's, respectively. It was not until 1980 that South Korea just caught up with North Korea. South Korea's GDP and per capita GDP are $60.3 billion and 1.589 respectively, while North Korea's two figures are $4/kloc-0 and 1 respectively. Since then, South Korea has developed rapidly, leaving North Korea far behind. For details, see the following figure1:1990-1996: Comparison of overall economic indicators between Korea and North Korea; Annual economic growth rate of%; Gross domestic product 1 100 million USD; The per capita national income is USD 1990 9.5-3.7 2 536 2 620 5 883 2 0201991-5.229417106 757/kloc-. They are -3.7, -5.2, -7.6, -4.3,-1.7, -4.5, -3.0, -6.8,-1. It was not until 1999 that the positive growth of 6.2 began to appear. . See the second picture of North Korea's economic development for details. Table 2: North Korea's GDP table 1990- 1999 growth rate GDP (USD) per capita GDP (USD)1953 7.146196035177/kloc 1990-3.7 23 1 1064 1-5.2 229 1038 1992-7.6 2 1 1 943 1993-4.3 205 904 1 According to the report of South Korea's Central Bank, North Korea's construction industry grew the strongest last year, accounting for 24.3%, agriculture increased by 9.2%, and mining and manufacturing industries increased by 9.9%. In particular, more than 4,000 local enterprises that stopped production in recent years started production. This is undoubtedly a good sign. However, despite this, the scale and level of North Korea's economic development are extremely low. Some scholars believe that North Korea's economy from 1999 is still only 75% of that from 1989. In fact, this is a very high estimate, and its economic scale and per capita income are only about 50% at that time. (2) After the 1990s, with the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the trade environment of North Korea deteriorated, the foreign exchange reserves became less and less, and the imports of raw materials, fuels and crude oil plummeted, which led to a sharp decline in metallurgical, coal and electric power production and a serious decline in the whole industrial production. From 1990 to 1998, the coal output decreased from 33150,000 tons to186,000 tons; The power generation is reduced from 22.7 billion kilowatts to1700 million kilowatts; Steel production decreased from 3.36 million tons to 945,000 tons; Crude oil imports decreased from 2.52 million tons to 500,000 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 operating rate of enterprises is only 20%. See Table 3 for details: North Korea's major industrial annual output projects/KOOC-0/990/KOOC-0/992/KOOC-0/993/KOOC-0/994/KOOC-0/995/KOOC-0/996 Electric Power (/KOOC-) 2 13 grain (ten thousand tons) 481443 427 388 412 345 369 steel (ten thousand tons) 336 317179186/kloc. 5 17 475 398 433 422 379 chemical fertilizer (ten thousand tons)159144139132196 coal (ten thousand tons 926) 1999 in the first half of the year, the total industrial output value increased by 20% compared with the same period last year. According to statistics, in 2000, North Korea's power output increased by 140%, coal output increased by 1 13%, and more than 2,500 factories and enterprises exceeded the production plan for the first half of the year. (3) North Korea's grain production In the 1960s, North Korea made proud achievements in grain production. North Korea produced 5 million tons of grain in 1964. At that time, the population was only120,000, which not only made people well off, but also had surplus grain for export, and was called "economic miracle" by international public opinion. In the middle and late 1970s, the annual grain output of North Korea exceeded 7 million tons, and in the first half of 1980s it exceeded 8 million tons, even reaching1984+00 million tons. However, from the 1990s to 2000, North Korea's self-produced grain averaged around 4 million tons per year. (See Chart 4 for details) Table 4: North Korea's grain supply: annual output (10,000 tons) deficit (10,000 tons)1964,5001974,700198410001000. 438+029 36.8 1992 442.7 207.3 83 124.3 1993 426.8 23 1.3 109 122.2 1994 388.4 278.6 49 229.6 / Kloc-0/998, in which, the rice output decreased from 6.5438+0.42 million tons in 2000 to 6.5438+0.63 million tons, the corn from 6.5438+0.92 million tons to 6.5438+0.44 million tons, and the soybean from 6.5438+0.3 million tons to 6.5438+0. At present, the total population of North Korea is about 24 million. According to the average grain consumption of 460 grams per person per day, the minimum grain demand in North Korea should be around 4 million tons per year. North Korea's annual normal grain demand is about 7.46 million tons, including 4.8 million tons of rations, 6.5438+0.2 million tons of industrial grain and 6.5438+0.4 million tons of feed. It can be seen that North Korea lacks about 2.5-3 million tons of grain every year. Since 199 1, it has imported about 8 million-1.6 million tons of grain every year. In the past two years, the North Korean government has taken some measures, such as calling on farmers to reclaim wasteland to grow potatoes and implementing the so-called "potato revolution" to alleviate the food crisis. According to the statistics of North Korea's agricultural department, in 2000, the potato planting area in North Korea reached 200,000 mu (about 1 hectare/step). If the output per step is 20 tons, North Korea's potato output last year reached about 4 million tons. It is reported that this year North Korea plans to expand the potato planting area by 200,000 steps. In this way, the potato planting area in North Korea will account for about 1/6 of the total cultivated area in China. The per capita grain supply has increased from150g last year to 300g, but it is still not enough to meet the required normal quantity. 19991110, North Korea's Deputy Minister of Agriculture, who attended the World Food Organization (FAO) conference in October, said that there would be a grain shortage of10.2 million tons in 2000. At the FAO regional conference held in Yokohama, Japan, in August 2000, the DPRK representative Yin Shouchang said that "due to the spring drought, rice planting was delayed and the food situation remained difficult" and requested the international community to continue to provide support. (4) After North Korea's foreign trade entered the 1990s, the international economic environment changed greatly at any time, and North Korea's foreign trade was greatly impacted. The Soviet Union has always been North Korea's largest trading partner. From 65438 to 0990, 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 in 199 1 year dropped sharply to US$ 470 million, a decrease of more than 80% over the previous year. Since then, the trade volume has decreased year by year. In the afternoon of 1995, the trade volume between the DPRK and Russia was only $230 million, and its proportion in the total trade volume of the DPRK dropped to 1 1%. In the past five years, the scale of trade between the DPRK and Russia has shrunk by more than 50%, which has led to a serious decline in North Korea's foreign trade, a deterioration in terms of trade, and a sharp decline in import and export trade. At 199 1, the total trade volume dropped from $4.78 billion at 1990 to $2.72 billion, to $2.66 billion at 1993, and to $2.64 billion at/kloc. The total trade volume dropped to $2.05 billion in 1995, and further dropped to144.2 billion in 1998. 1998 North Korea's foreign trade volume was144.2 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 33.7%, of which the import volume was 880 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 30.6%; The export value was US$ 559 million, down 38.2% year-on-year. This is the first time since the 1990s that North Korea's trade volume has fallen below $6543.8+$500 million. 1999 is14.79 million USD. It rebounded slightly in 2000 (US$ 654.38+97 million) and increased by 805.438+0 in the first half of 2006. Among them, the export of steel products to China increased by 24 1%, and the import of fossil fuels and grain from China increased by 1 12% and 89% respectively. See chart 5: 1989— 1999 for North Korea's foreign trade since 1990s. Annual list of foreign debts1989199199219931994199519994 21./. 4.42 19.7 output16.918.610.10.2 65438+. 29.217.116.212.7112.581output-input-64. -4.3 -5.7 -5.2 -2.8 1 -8.6 foreign debt 67.8 78.6 92.8 97.2103.2106.618.3120.0/kloc. North Korea has recognized the problems in its economic structure and made some adjustments to it. For example, the proportion of service industry increased rapidly, from 1990 to 1995, by 9.4%, while the proportion of heavy industry decreased by 6.3% in the same period, and the proportion of agriculture, forestry and fishery also decreased slightly, but it never fundamentally reversed the imbalance of the national economic structure. See table 6:1991-1995 North Korea's national economic structure ratio table1991992199319941 995 Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 28% 28.5% 27.9% 29.5% 27.6% Mining 38% Service 20.9% 23.5% 25.9% 27.9% 30.3% In recent years, due to the food crisis and the sharp decline of industrial and agricultural production, its focus has been on restoring normal production and solving people's food problems, and it has no time to take into account the adjustment of economic structure. Its economic structure is basically similar to that of the mid-1990s. Agriculture accounts for the largest proportion in North Korea's economic structure, followed by manufacturing and government services. If divided by industry, the share of primary industry, namely agriculture, is 27.6%, the share of secondary industry (manufacturing+construction+mining and electricity) is 42%, and the share of service industry is 30.3%. See table 7 for details. Table 7: North Korea's national economic structure (1995) Proportion of economic sector to GNP (%) Agriculture 27.6 Manufacturing 22.5 Construction 6.7 Service Industry 9.6 Mining 8.0 Electricity, natural gas and tap water 4.8 Government service sector 20.7 Total 100 As can be seen from the above table, firstly, the agricultural population, which accounts for 37.6% of the total economic population of North Korea, is created. Secondly, two-thirds (30.3%) of the tertiary industry is government service department, so this does not mean the prosperity of the tertiary industry, which just shows that the service industry is still in a relatively primary state in the North Korean economy. North Korea's industries mainly include machinery manufacturing, steel, coal, electricity, shipbuilding, textiles and other departments. Its economic sector is relatively complete and has potential. However, the proportion of heavy industry in industry is significant, and the proportion of steel industry and machinery industry in heavy industry is significant; The proportion of light industry and social indirect capital is small; The development of tertiary industry is still very low. Therefore, on the whole, North Korea belongs to a typical backward economic structure of developing countries with a low level of modernization. This is in sharp contrast with the national economic structure of South Korea. See Table 8 Table 8: Year of Korean National Economic Structure Project (1990- 1995) Agricultural Industry (Manufacturing Industry) Service Industry1990 8.7 29.8 (29.2) 610.5199/. According to the estimation of Korea Development Bank, the technological gap between North Korea's major industries and developed countries is about 17-25 years. Among them, shipbuilding for 23 years, steel for 20 years, machine tool manufacturing for 20 years, automobile for 25 years, household appliances for 23 years, computer 17 years, textile for 23 years, and food and beverage for 27 years.