The Dreadful Legacy of North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il in One Satellite Picture and One Chart

December 19, 2011 7:51 PM | 1 min read | Make a Comment

This one picture above of the Korean peninsula does a pretty good job of capturing the legacy of Kim Jong Il by comparing electricity usage at night between North and South Korea.

Here's another comparison: The CIA estimates that North Korea's GDP per capita in 2009 was $1,800. That's equivalent to the inflation-adjusted U.S. per capita GDP back in the year 1847, or more than 150 years ago (see chart below).

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