As I noted in a post last week, the DPRK outgrew the ROK quite substantially for nearly two decades. The reported rates of growth were the highest ever seen anywhere, but were probably exaggerated (just like the original Stalin USSR growth rates were). Nevertheless, they were very high for awhile. Of course in the last two decades the ROK, which has been an indicatively planned economy with a lot of state involvement has seen some of the highest growth rates in the world. It was third in the world for the 1990s, after the PRC and Bhutan (no shit).
The DPRK economy is pathetic today because it has lots of people starving to death. I fully agree that we do not know how many are starving or how many have died. Credible sources have put the numbers in the millions. But, even if it is only in the thousands, this is still pretty pathetic, especially for an economy that as late as 1987 was doing pretty well in agricultural performance, as I noted in my earlier post.
I have read claims that the DPRK economy may have "hit bottom" and "turned the corner." But, it fell very far and for a very long time. Pathetic is definitely the word.
BTW, to Yoshie, let me note that this is not just imperialist media propaganda. Indeed, I saw folks on this list claiming that the DPRK was itself exaggerating the numbers dead from famine so as to obtain aid from international sources. Not what I would expect from a successful practitioner of juche.
I would also suggest to anybody who does not like hearing Kim Il Sung labeled as "megalomaniac," to go look at one of his official biographies. The guy is virtually a universal savior, according to these, certainly great enough to have a whole philosophy named for himself, "Kimilsungism," not to mention having most people in his country wearing pins with his picture on them and having a humongous statue of himself built. If this is not megalomania, then it does not exist. But, then, perhaps some on this list believe that he deserved such praise..... Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Charles Brown <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Thursday, June 01, 2000 1:46 PM Subject: Re: No Megalomania in Capitalism (was Re: seth & defusingkoreatensions)
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>>>> Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> 06/01/00 12:34AM >>>
>Barkley wrote:
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>>What is
>>more striking about all that muscle-bound military, if weak
>>underneath, is what a drain it must be on the pathetic economy.
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>No doubt a military is a huge drain on resources, natural or human.
>Imperialism doesn't allow a rational use of resources -- neither in
>the U.S. nor in North Korea.
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>CB: If we term the North Korean economy "pathetic" , shouldn't we term the
U.S. economy meglomanaical dictatorship ?
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>> There have been some recent moves to "capitalist
>>roading" in the DPRK. But it remains the case that even
>>now the DPRK as a system looks more like a pure version
>>of the classic Stalinist model than did even any regime in
>>the world in the late 1980s, with the possible exception of
>>Albania.
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>If such were the case, AFL-CIO should be so happy. No possibility of
>major losses of _American_ jobs, much less of an entry into the WTO
>or talk of PNTR. :)
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>CB: The Stalinist economic model had faster growth rates than the original
capitalism or even the simultaneous capitalism. It is a gross error to claim
that the Stalinist economic model was not enormously successful from the
standpoint of rate of growth, more successful than the capitalist model.
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