North Korea's Economy Remains Tiny, But Has Some Bright Spots

  • South Korea releases report giving estimates for DPRK economy
  • More people in the isolated regime are using mobile phones

North Korea Crisis Continues to Escalate

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North Korea’s economy remains a fraction of its southern neighbor’s, but it showed improvement last year in some sectors including agriculture -- and more people than ever have mobile phones.

In a report published by South Korea’s statistics office Friday, per capita income in North Korea in 2016 was estimated at 1.46 million South Korean won ($1,340), or about 4.5 percent of that of the South. Total trade volume was less than 1 percent of South Korea.