a recent un report revealed that a large portionof north korea’s overall income is brought in through outsourced slave labor. primarilyfocused in china and russia, tens of thousands of north koreans are forced to work as muchas 20 hours a day, while up to 2.3 billion dollars a year in wages are collected by theirgovernment. but slavery isn’t the only criminal activity from which north korea sees profit.so we wanted to know, how exactly does north
financial news , korea make money? well, north korea’s economy has always seenabysmal growth. according to un statistics, both north and south korea started out witha similar gdp in 1970,: around $300 dollars per capita. by 2013, south korea’s gdp hadgrown by nearly than 9,000%. meanwhile, north
korea’s gdp only doubled over those 4 decades.but most financial figures surrounding their economy are unknown, as north korea has oneof the most closed economic systems in the world. this is the result of a cultural philosophyknown as “jucheâ€, or “self-relianceâ€. the enclosed system is one of the ways thatnorth korea is able to farm out its citizens in what is effectively slavery. while someworkers do see payment from their government, it is in the form of nearly worthless localcurrency, the won, at a massively inflated exchange rate. in north korea’s black markets,a single us dollar can buy more than 8,000 won, while the government offers an exchangeof just 105 won. but besides collecting for slave labor, north korea also trades in otherinternationally prohibited activities.
one north korean defector reported that thecountry has allocated major agricultural zones for growing opium. they have also become wellknown for producing mass quantities of methamphetamines, the majority of which go to china. a 2008congressional report found that the increasing drug trade over north korean borders was stronglylinked to government sources. however, later congressional reports disputed this link,pointing to private north korean drug traffickers as the source instead. north korea is also a hotbed of counterfeiting.the us has accused their government of producing at least $45 million dollars in very highquality $100 dollar bills, which are known as “supernotesâ€. this counterfeiting operationis thought to net up to $25 million dollars
a year in profit. but perhaps the biggest benefactor of northkorea’s economy is actually china. while north korea has almost no money, they haveconsiderable natural resources. in 2015, north korea imported nearly twice as much as theyexported with china. but this trade imbalance is actually beneficial to china, because itcomes with mining contracts for north korean coal and zinc. china is also one of the onlycountries to support north korea with food, weapons, and energy, in the face of internationalsanctions. north korea’s dishonest economic dealingsmay explain how they’ve avoided collapse while sanctioned around the world. as longas they continue an alliance with china and
russia to keep their limited trade afloat,north korea will keep exporting drugs, counterfeit bills, and slave labor.
north korea’s outsourcing of slave laboris particularly disconcerting. check out this seeker daily video up top to learn more aboutwhy they started this practice. or, if you want to know how their secretive governmentactually works, check out our video down below. thanks for watching! don’t forget to likeand subscribe, for new videos every day.
