N. Korea's labor productivity 30 years behind S. Korea: think tank

SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea lags more than 30 years behind South Korea in terms of labor productivity due mainly to the reclusive country's decades of stunted economic growth, a private think tank said Sunday.

According to a report by the Hyundai Research Institute (HRI), the average North Korean worker was estimated to have produced 2.7 million won (US$2,552) worth of goods or services annually as of the end of 2012. The average South Korean laborer reached that level of productivity in 1980.

In 1990, North Korea's worker productivity was estimated at 1.6 million won, while South Korea's workers produced 7 times more than their northern counterparts.

Labor productivity measures the amount of goods and services that a worker produces in a given amount of time.

"North Korea's labor productivity rose only 69 percent in the past 22 years," the HRI report said. "The so-called 'Arduous March' retarded the country's economic growth in the 1990s."

Over the cited period, the North-South gap in labor productivity widened to 21-fold in 2012 from 7-fold in 1990.

The Arduous March, or the March of Suffering, was a failed state propaganda campaign in 1993 to overcome the famine stemming from floods and droughts in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The report said North Korea needs 55 trillion won to raise its per-capita gross domestic production (GDP) to $5,000 in the next nine years from $1,800 in 2011.

From then, an additional 85 trillion won will be necessary to reach $10,000 in per-capita GDP, it said

"It will be important to expand inter-Korean economic cooperation to support the North's economic growth in preparation for future reunification," the HRI report said.

brk@yna.co.kr
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