14% of North Koreans have cellphones

By Yoon Ja-young

Fourteen out of 100 North Koreans have cellphones. The country’s economy grew 3.9 percent last year, marking the highest growth since 1999.

According to a Statistics Korea report on North Korea released Friday, North Korea’s population totaled 24.9 million as of last year, which is less than half that of South Korea at 51.2 million. When combined, the population on the Korean Peninsula totals 76.1 million.

North Korea’s gross national income (GNI) was 36.4 trillion won last year, which is 2.2 percent of South Korea’s 1,639.1 trillion won. The North Korean economy grew 3.9 percent last year, while South Korea marked 2.8 percent growth.

North Korea’s per capita income was 1.46 million won. Their brothers in South Korea had 22 times bigger per capita income at 32 million won.

The country under sanction had $6.5 billion trade last year, which compares with $901.6 billion trade of South Korea, one of the world’s main trading countries.

The number of North Koreans who subscribed to mobile phone services stood at 3.6 million, or 14 percent of the total. In South Korea, the number of mobile phone subscriptions totaled 61.3 million, which is bigger than its population. This is because some mobile phone users have subscribed to multiple services.

North Korea also lacks infrastructure. Its total electric power generation capacity stood at 7.7 million kW, while that of South Korea was 14 times bigger at 105.9 million kW. North Korea’s roads totaled 26,176 kilometers in length, a quarter that of South Korea. Its highways were only one-sixth those of South Korea, at 774 kilometers versus 4,438 kilometers.

However, North Korea had better figures than South Korea in some areas. North Korea’s coal production totaled 31.1 million tons, which is 18 times bigger than the South. It also had more railways than South Korea. The North’s railways totaled 5,226 kilometers in length, 1.3 times longer than the South’s.

Their crop production was also slightly bigger than the South, at 4.8 million tons versus 4.7 million tons. Rice was the most important crop in North Korea with 2.2 million tons produced in 2016, followed by corn at 1.7 million tons. In South, meanwhile, nearly 90 percent of the crops produced was rice.

The fertility rate of North Korea was 1.94, which is higher than South Korea’s 1.33. South Korea is suffering from one of the world’s lowest birth rates.