The Dreadful Legacy of North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il in One Satellite Picture and One Chart

By Mark Perry.

This one picture above of the Korean peninsula does a pretty good job of capturing the legacy of Kim Jong Il by comparing electricity usage at night between North and South Korea. 

Here's another comparison: The CIA estimates that North Korea's GDP per capita in 2009 was $1,800.  That's equivalent to the inflation-adjusted U.S. per capita GDP back in the year 1847, more than 150 years ago (see chart below).  And South Korea's per capita GDP of $30,000 is about 17 times higher than its neighbor to the north.