South Korea is prosperous and has a free-market economy (although its birthrate has collapsed). But neighboring North Korea, a communist country, is 20 times poorer and is experiencing a rise in starvation and malnutrition. Conditions are so bad that even its military is poorly fed, and many young men evade conscription to avoid the beatings soldiers receive while in the military:
North Korea continues its economic decline and risk of political collapse. More North Koreans are malnourished and starvation deaths are increasing. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un faces multiple problems with his military forces. More than half North Korean military age men are avoiding conscription and most are getting away with it. Many potential recruits and their parents know that the situation for new recruits has gotten worse over the last few years with a growing number of new soldiers dying during their first year of service.
A major cause of the increased deaths is the adoption in the North Korean army of the Russian custom of Dedovshchina. This involves the beating of new soldiers by older soldiers with more time in service. Often described as hazing, it currently leaves some new soldiers severely injured or dead. Since Dedovshchina has been outlawed, victims are described as killed by accidents. Many parents know better because their son has written home about the bad treatment he was receiving. The growing problem with Dedovshchina is made worse when the new soldiers are older men in their mid-20s who delayed their military service until they completed their university studies. That means less educated but veteran younger soldiers have even more reason to use Dedovshchina on men who can look forward to a more prosperous post-military life. These younger but veteran soldiers also have a more difficult time training the older, better educated recruits.
These problems have led to a major increase in soldiers evading their mandatory military service. It wasn’t just Dedovshchina, there were also growing food shortages for soldiers and civilians alike. Several poor harvests and no money for food imports has led to less available food for most North Koreans. Families of senior officials, the secret police and military commanders get enough food but that’s not enough to halt the collapse of government control over the entire country. With fewer soldiers and low morale among troops that are in service, the government refuses to make needed changes. Currently about 30 percent of GDP is devoted to the military and other defense related matters, like the nuclear weapons program. More prosperous countries, like South Korea, spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defense while Japan spends one percent, China 1.6 percent, Russia 8.7 percent and the United States three percent. Russia and North Korea are spending too much on military matters and their economies are suffering as a result. The United States has the largest economy in the world and China is second.
Neighboring South Korea is one of the world’s wealthier countries. But for some reason, South Koreans have largely stopped reproducing, reports CNN:
South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate, which indicates the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime. It recorded a rate of just 0.72 in 2023 – down from 0.78 the previous year, the latest drop in a long string of yearly declines. Countries need a fertility rate of 2.1 to maintain a stable population, in the absence of immigration.
The data underscores the demographic time bomb that South Korea and other East Asian nations are facing as their societies rapidly age just a few decades after their rapid industrialization….Throwing money at the problem has proved ineffective….More than $200 billion has been spent trying to boost the population over the past 16 years.
Initiatives like extending paid paternity leave, offering monetary “baby vouchers” to new parents, and social campaigns encouraging men to contribute to childcare and housework, have so far failed to reverse the trend.
