Sunday 17 May 2015

Surprising statistics to back the expilnation:

  • South Koreas population (48.96 million) is double North Koreas (24.72 million) population (estimated 2013).
  • North Koreans ( at 79.2) are expected to live ten years longer than South Koreans ( at 69.3) 
  • The Internet users per 100 people are 81.5 in South Korea and you will never believe this but are less than 0.1 in North Korea! Which in my opinion is quite phenomenal that in this day and age they've magnaed to block out all access to Internet and social media.
  • The GDP per capita is 32 400 dollars  in South Korea and only a mere 1800 dollars in North Korea! (2012)
  • The infant mortality rate per 1000 live births in North Korea is 26.21 and in South Korea is 4.08.
  • The press freedom ranking (2013) is 50th in North Korea and 178th in SouthKorea! 
  • There millitary expenditure as a percentage of GDP is 22.3 percent in North Korea and only 2.8 percent in South Korea.
North Vs South Korea - A short simple expilnation of the differences:
We can undoubtably say that the the two countries are not comparing like with like North Korea is a small, poverty stricken and a completely isolated country, South Korea on the other hand is wealthy and backed by America a very powerful country.
They never call themselves the names we do either, officially, it's the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (that's the North, to the rest of us) and the Republic of Korea. While the South is westernised and industrialised, the North has the distinction of being the most corrupt country in the world (joint with Afghanistan), according to statistics have a high infant mortality rate and homicide rate plus have one of the lowest press freedom than anywhere else in the world.
So the first question you may be thinking about is what in the first place was it that caused the split of Korea?
It began in 1904 with Russia and Japan fighting over Korea. And when Japan finally won Korea became a Japanese Colony until around 1910. Orginally it was America to take over North Korea but the Soviets also showed intrest because both forces realised that Japan controling Korea gave them too much power in the war. So working alongside each other they then went to war with the Japanese. Until Japanese forces in Northern Korea surrendered to the Soviets, while those in Southern Korea surrendered to the Americans and they were then supposed to arrange for nation-wide elections to rejoin Korea in 1948, but neither side trusted the other. The US wanted the entire peninsula to be democratic and capitalist; the Soviets wanted it all to be communist. It wasnt going to work. So to simplify the story North Korea became communist and South became democratic and capalist.More than sixty years and millions of lives later, as a result of the almost accidental division of North and South Korea the 38th parallel remains arguably the most tense border on Earth.


Hi my name is Caoilainn and am writing a blog on North Korea Vs South Korea two countires that are so close toegther phsically but are so far apart in every other way. I find this whole topic very intresting and would like to show you how this could be. Welcome and enjoy...