North Korea

F

Social Services

All North Korean citizens are entitled to disability benefits and retirement allowances. Medical care is free and available at people’s clinics throughout the country.

G

Defense

In 2004 the U.S. government estimated that the total personnel of the North Korean regular armed forces was about 1,106,000, distributed as follows: army, 950,000; navy, 46,000; and air force, 110,000. This total excludes reserve forces.

Estimates of weaponry were: tanks, 3,800; field artillery, 12,000; surface ships, 430; submarines, 90; and jet fighter aircraft, 760. The North Korean forces are equipped primarily with weapons, such as T-62 tanks, received from the former Soviet Union and China during the Cold War.

In 2004 North Korea’s 760 fighter jets included only 60 advanced Soviet models (MiG-23s, MiG-29s, and SU-25s). Most of its mainstay fighters are MiG-19s, MiG-21s, Il-28s, and SU-7s. Some 320 are outmoded MiG-15s and MiG-17s. By contrast, South Korea had 520 advanced fighters in 2004, including 162 U.S.-supplied advanced fighters. The United States, which has a military alliance with South Korea, based more than 100 military airplanes in South Korea in 2004, including 70 F-16s, most armed with smart bombs.

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In addition to its conventional forces, North Korea announced in February 2005 that it had become a “nuclear weapons state” in order to defend itself against what it perceived as the threat of a U.S. preemptive attack. In July 2006 North Korea launched seven test missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 believed to have the range to reach North America. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea, banning other nations from supplying it with materials necessary for building missiles. In early October 2006 North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in an underground explosion.

VI

Economy

The government of North Korea maintains a predominantly centralized, or state-controlled, economy. After the establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic in 1948, all industry was nationalized and agriculture was collectivized. Government economic policy emphasized a doctrine of self-reliance and downgraded the role of foreign trade. Economic plans gave emphasis to the development of heavy industry and the mechanization of agriculture.

North Korea became dependent on its Cold War benefactors, the Soviet Union and China, for crude oil, refined petroleum products, and feedstock for its fertilizer factories. Thus, when Soviet and Chinese aid declined after 1990, the country was unable to operate its fertilizer factories, its tractors, and its irrigation pumps. Flood damage in 1995 and 1996, in addition to the petroleum shortage, crippled agricultural production and led to famine conditions in some parts of the country. With only 18 percent of its largely mountainous terrain arable and agricultural production still inadequate to meet its needs, North Korea became dependent on foreign food aid, largely from China, South Korea, and the United States. Serious malnutrition persists. The loss of Cold War aid subsidies has also led to a deterioration of its economic infrastructure.

Beginning in 2002, the government initiated economic reforms designed to reverse the economic decline. These reforms included decentralizing control over many state enterprises, which no longer receive subsidies if they are unprofitable; a revised price and wage structure that has given farmers higher wages for their production; new work rules in agricultural cooperatives that reward the more productive farm workers; and private markets in which individual vendors sell agricultural and consumer goods. These goods, which are subject to government price controls, are either locally produced or imported from China, Japan, and South Korea.

A

Labor

In 2005 the estimated total workforce of North Korea was 10.7 million, with 38 percent of the workforce engaged in agriculture. The major industrial and technical trade unions are affiliated with the General Federation of Trade Unions; also important is the Korean Agricultural Working People’s Union. Professional workers, including artists, writers, lawyers, and scientists, have their own trade organizations.

B

Agriculture

Large-scale mechanization, irrigation, and land reclamation have increased crop yields. The principal crops (with their yields in 2005) include rice (2.5 million metric tons), corn (1.6 million), and potatoes (2.1 million). Other important crops are millet, barley, wheat, vegetables, apples, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. Livestock number about 3.2 million pigs, 578,000 cattle, 172,000 sheep, and 27 million poultry.

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