On the internet, there exists a plethora of statistics and facts about world poverty. While this is beneficial in terms of giving readers a feeling of what is going on in the world, it can also be overwhelming. Statistics and data, however, do not sufficiently depict the realities of impoverished countries. As a result, many people rely on novels to comprehend the human experiences of individuals living in impoverished countries. Most people are unaware of North Korea’s poverty, and novels are an excellent method to educate readers.
Information is relayed through storytelling, and it helps people to obtain official facts. It enables readers to comprehend the realities and feelings of others. Personal experiences, according to the BBC, are crucial in efficiently drawing attention to severe problems in their environment. The emotional response of the readers acts as a catalyst for assistance.
North Korea and Poverty
For many people, North Korea is a mysterious and unknown place. Its population has grown to 25 million people since 1948. North Korea is impoverished as a result of its economic structure and lack of engagement in the global economy. Approximately 60% of the population of North Korea is impoverished.
North Korea operates on the basis of a command economy, which is common in communist nations. Due to a lack of rivalry among firms, the government has complete control over all monetary exchanges, causing the economy to stay largely static. Furthermore, trade restrictions and sanctions imposed by North Korea have severely harmed the country’s economy. As a result of this lack of engagement, the country has practically been shut out of the international market. North Korea’s economy is in danger of collapsing, and poverty levels are rising. Fortunately, the publications listed below contribute to the fight against global poverty by depicting the pain that exists and demonstrating why action is required.
The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee
This work, which was released in 2015, has received widespread acclaim for its ability to communicate such profound human feeling in horrible circumstances. The author’s experiences in North Korea are chronicled in The Girl With the Seven Names. It depicts Lee’s family’s effort to escape poverty. Lee explains the heinous abuse and awful situations she endured while living under the present North Korean leadership in her book.
She also discusses how such events have affected her and those around her emotionally. This publication gives readers a behind-the-scenes peek into North Korea’s poverty. Readers will also gain a better understanding of the people of this country’s living conditions.
The Accusation by Bandi
Between 1989 and 1995, The Accusation was a collection of short stories. This book is unique in that it is not a standard memoir, but rather a collection of tiny chapters that represent the daily lives of North Koreans living in poverty. Information has been difficult to obtain due to the country’s secrecy. As a result, Bandi’s work has become one of the country’s scarce sources. In order to continue reporting, Bandi has chosen to live in North Korea. The Accusation has received a lot of appreciation for its straightforward wording and significance as a primary source.
Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea by Jang Jin-Sung
Dear Sir or Madam, My Escape from North Korea has received critical acclaim as an expos on the way North Korean high-ranking officers live. Kim Jong-poet il’s laureate at the time was author Jang Jin-Sung. As a result, he gained access to highly filtered information. In this piece, the author and protagonist are forced to depart the country as fugitives after lending a banned magazine to a friend. His writings provide a fascinating look into the life of the upper elite and how the power structure works.
Furthermore, Jin-novel Sung’s reveals the political pressures that come with working closely with Kim Jong-il, as well as the harsh penalties of spreading information. Jin-Sung is able to supply an incredible amount of useful information for people who want to learn more about North Korea’s social injustice.
How These Books Help
These are only a few of the novels that shed light on North Korean people’s experiences and poverty. Many NGOs and countries, thankfully, continue to provide food and monetary relief to those in need. China and South Korea are the most frequent donors to North Korea, with China sending an incredible 240,074 tons of food to the country in 2012. Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Norway, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Ireland have also pledged to help alleviate poverty in North Korea, according to the UN.
Although North Korea appears enigmatic and closed off, investigating the country’s living conditions is not impossible. Readers will be able to comprehend human challenges that have occurred in this area for almost half a century thanks to primary documents and biographies depicting life in North Korea. Recognizing poverty and understanding how to help has prompted many people to take action today.
What accounts for North Korea’s low GDP?
North Korea’s poor economic performance during the 1990s pushed the leadership to begin opening up the economy to limited international investment and expanded commerce, in addition to accepting foreign aid. North Korea was actively courting foreign investment from European Union (EU) countries, South Korea, and others by the end of the decade. It was more open to talks with EU and Commonwealth countries than with the US, Japan, and South Korea, the latter three having been far more at odds with North Korea diplomatically and strategically since the Korean War (in the case of Japan, since the colonial period) than the others. North Korea has maintained at least minimal contact with each of those three countries because they were the main providers of foreign aid in the early twenty-first century.
What is North Korea’s unemployment rate?
According to our econometric models, the North Korean Unemployment Rate will trend around 3.40 percent in 2022 and 3.20 percent in 2023 in the long run.
Is it legal to consume alcohol in North Korea?
In the DPRK, there are no limits on alcohol. Although it is often frowned upon for students to drink, there is no legal drinking age (this includes university students). The state gives top producers, such as Taedonggang Beer, special classification, ensuring that they have preference over other firms. A national liquor is currently being debated, comparable to how Scotland has whisky, China has baijiu, and Japan has sake. Ration card beer bars can be found in every district in Pyongyang, where citizens can get up to 10 pints of beer every month on rations. Additional beers are available, but they must be paid for in cash. There are no laws against public drinking, however it is prohibited to drink (or smoke) near political or revolutionary places. North Koreans can be found drinking, singing, dancing, and even performing standup comedy routines in public parks and at the seashore on holidays and Sundays. Bars are frequent, and they can get rather crowded outside of business hours.
Why is North Korea the most difficult country to flee?
South Korea, which is the polar opposite of North Korea, is the most obvious place to flee. It is a prosperous and free democracy. South Korea claims legal jurisdiction over the entire Korean Peninsula and considers all 26 million North Koreans to be its own citizens. This means that if a person makes it to South Korea, they are assured of citizenship, a bright future, and are affectively safe. However, traveling from the north to the south side of a peninsula is perhaps the most challenging voyage a human being can undertake in the twenty-first century. Walking across the southern border is nearly impossible due to the fact that it is the world’s most highly militarized location. It’s fully surrounded by high walls, electric razor wire, and millions of mines, and it’s protected by millions of soldiers armed with live fire who have been given clear orders to shoot anyone foolish or brave enough to attempt to pass. While this is the quickest way out, it is also the most perilous and risky. Even if the chances of success are slim, many people have tried and succeeded. In 2017, a guy drove his car up to the border’s military demarcation line, crashed, got out, fled across the border amid a hail of machine gun fire from North Korean border guards, and slumped behind a wall on the South Korean side before being rescued. Despite being shot five times and losing half of his blood in the fast attempt, he survived and currently lives in South Korea.
Is North Korea well-off?
While North Korea does not make its economic data public, data given by Trading Economics and the World Bank placed the country’s GDP at $18 billion (14.1 billion) by the end of 2020, and demonstrates that it has been expanding year on year. Although this is a small fraction of South Korea’s GDP, which was estimated by the World Bank to be $1.6 trillion (1.3 trillion) in 2020, the fact that North Korea is growing suggests that international sanctions aimed at crippling its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs have had little effect.
What is North Korea’s typical income?
Workers in North Korea are not required to be paid a minimum wage because the country does not have one. Pay rates must be negotiated directly with the employer through collective bargaining or other ways.
What is the North Korea Minimum Wage?
The North Korean Minimum Wage is the lowest amount that a worker can be paid legally for his or her employment. Most countries have a national minimum wage that must be paid to all workers.
North Korea’s daily currency ranges from 5,000 to 10,000 won ($5.5 to $11.1).
The minimum wage in North Korea was last modified on January 1, 2014.
In North Korea, what is the most common occupation?
According to the 2008 census in North Korea, approximately 88 percent of the people aged 20 to 59 are officially engaged in communist sectors.
What percentage of North Korea’s population lives in poverty?
North Korea’s nuclear testing activities are frequently in the news. The vast majority of state finances go to the nuclear program, while social institutions are neglected. As a result, millions of people in North Korea live in abject poverty.
Leading Facts on Poverty in North Korea
- The abyss of destitution. Approximately 24 million people, or 40% of the population, live in poverty. The majority of laborers earn between $2 and $3 each month. Since the early 1980s, the standard of living has deteriorated to extreme levels of destitution, and the average life expectancy has decreased by five years.
- There are food shortages. Food shortages are common in North Korea due to the country’s poverty. A famine that began in the 1990s had a long-term impact on the country, requiring it to rely on international aid to feed its people. However, since 2009, food aid has dramatically decreased. According to a research conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 84 percent of households consume “borderline or substandard food.” Thousands of people had died as a result of the food shortages. According to the World Food Programme, one-third of children are stunted as a result of hunger, with a 33 percent infant mortality rate. Food riots are widespread as a result of the government’s “two meals a day” initiative.
- The massive rabbit feeding operation. In 2007, Kim Jun-il began breeding big overweight bunnies to alleviate widespread food shortages. After observing Karl Szmolinsky, a German rabbit breeder, breed the world’s largest bunny, he got the idea. Szmolinsky brought overweight bunnies to North Korea, but the experiment failed when it was discovered that Kim himself was consuming the rabbits.
- Government program involving human feces. Agricultural fertilizers were previously imported from South Korea. South Korea, on the other hand, stopped supplying them in 2008. As a result, the government established a program in which farmers were required to utilize their own feces as fertilizers. Factory workers must meet a two-ton quota of human waste.
- The right to health is violated. Despite the fact that the country declares healthcare to be free, residents are denied medical treatment unless they can afford the high drug prices.
- The majority of the funding go to military initiatives. North Korea devotes a significant portion of its budget to the military. The country spent more than $5 billion on military spending alone in 2001, accounting for more than 30% of GDP. North Korea is thought to possess about a half-dozen nuclear weapons.
- Despite the fact that the country’s poverty percentage is significant, the leader is worth $5 billion. North Korea is officially the world’s most corrupt country, according to Transparency International’s 2011 corruption index. Kim is thought to have received $4 billion from his father. He is worth $5 billion, according to a South Korean news organization. The funds come from counterfeiting, narcotics sales, and other illegal activities and are housed in secret accounts in European banks. Kim also spends a lot of money on high-end items. In 2012, he reportedly spent $645.8 million.
- Refugees who are apprehended are transferred to labor camps. It is illegal to leave the nation without official permission. As punishment for disobedience, the government threatens detention and forced labor. Many families flee to China in search of safety. Those who are apprehended, however, are transported to political jail camps. Systemic abuse is carried out in the camps. According to reports, death rates at these camps are extremely high. Officials from the United States and South Korea estimate that 80,000 to 120,000 people are held in these facilities.
- There is a crystal meth epidemic. There is a major meth problem in North Korea. The creation of medicines is employed as an economic stimulus to counteract the dreadful economy with little to no government assistance. North Korean industries began producing methamphetamine around 2000. As a result, the usage of meth in the home has increased. The medicine is now widely available and considered a premium item. As a result, many North Koreans have developed a narcotic addiction. It is estimated that 80% of residents have tried the drug, with 40% of those who have become addicted.
- “The Interview,” a satirical film, gets a lot of things right. According to one expert, the film gets a lot of things correct, especially when it comes to North Korean mentality. Visitors to Pyongyang during the famine years used to describe supermarkets with plastic produce on display, much as depicted in the video.
The ascension of Kim Jong Un to power is viewed as a threat to Western political leaders. The world community, on the other hand, has begun to pay attention to North Korea’s human rights violations and poverty.
Who is the wealthier? Korea, North or South?
In 2019, South Korea’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) was over 1,919 trillion South Korean won, compared to around 35.28 trillion South Korean won for North Korea. South Korea’s nominal GDP was around 54 times that of North Korea as a result of this.