N. Korea's per-capita GDP grows 4.7 pct in 2011

North Korea's per-capita gross domestic product probably expanded more than 4 percent in 2011 from a year earlier on an improved grain harvest and intensified state efforts, a report said Sunday.

The North's per-capita GDP for last year is estimated at US$720, up 4.7 percent from $688 a year earlier, Hyundai Research Institute said in the report based on the communist country's infant mortality rate and grain production.

Btw $720 is 3% of what an average South Korean gets in a year...

Source: N. Korea's per-capita GDP grows 4.7 pct in 2011: report

Korean Beer

For those of you who don't know yet, Koreans usually drink soju, but beer is also a popular drink in Korea, often a substitute to those who don't like soju, and a complement to soju when making so-maek (soju+beer).


As a freshman at uni studying economics, drinking soju is the cheapest and fastest way to get drunk, thereby making it the most efficient choice. However, that was when I wasn't working my ass off. When my wallet was no more deprived of money after starting various part-time jobs, I changed my alcohol consumption from soju to beer. What I found disturbing about beer is that  Korean beer all taste really bland. The other beer options are overpriced foreign beers, which goes over my usual budget. Some of my friends say that Korean beer is sparkling water with little bit of alcohol added to it...


Koreans have few choices in beer even though they drink more of it than any alcohol beverage year after year. At any supermarket, convenience store, restaurant, food stall or bar, virtually everywhere, consumers have just two options: cheap and mediocre-tasting local beers or pricey imports.


What makes it sad is that people have come to accept this dichotomy as unavoidable, and adjust their consumption patterns to either downing Korean beer served in over-sized pitchers or splurging on fancy bottled foreign alternatives on special occasions. But the situation could change if the relevant regulations were liberalized ― cracking the OB-Jinro Hite duopoly. Local beers suffer not from lack of imagination but from lack of competition.

N. Koreans' life expectancy ranks 151st in world

The average North Korean can expect to live 69.2 years, placing the nation 151st (out of 221 countries)  in the world in terms of life expectancy, recent U.S. government data showed. Meanwhile South Koreans live 79.3 years on average, placing the nation 41st in the world in terms of life expectancy. 

North Korea

total population: 69.2 years 

male: 65.34 years 

female: 73.24 years (2012 est.)

South Korea

total population: 79.3 years 

male: 76.12 years 

female: 82.7 years (2012 est.)

But I doubt that North Koreans actually live 69.2 years on average. Like China, the most statistical data on North Korea is unreliable...

Source: N. Koreans' life expectancy ranks 151st in world: CIA data

Soccer: South Korea book seventh successive Olympic spot

South Korea reached their seventh successive Olympic Games with a game to spare on Wednesday when they cruised past Oman 3-0 in Muscat.

South Korea's Nam Tae-hee gave his team the perfect start when he scored after only one minute at their match in Oman. FC Seoul striker Kim Hyun-sung doubled the Koreans' advantage in the 68th minute before Kim Min-woo, who plays his club football in Japan's lower leagues with Sagan Tosu, adding the third just four minutes later.


Last time, back in '08, we failed to pass the first round...
Hope that we do better in London '12.


Source: South Korea book seventh successive Olympic spot 

FTD : Kim Jong-Un Must Step Down

Financial Times Deutschland(FTD) featured an article called "7 dictators that must step down in 2012". The second dictators chosen by FTD were :

-Baschar al-Assad
-Ayatollah Ali Chamanei
-Alexander Lukaschenko
-Robert Mugabe
-Nursultan Nasarbajew
-Omar Hussein al-Baschir
-Kim Jong-Un.

FTD pointed out that while North Korea is extremely hostile to almost all nations, the US knows almost nothing about Kim Jong-Un. Nobody is even sure of his age, except that he seems to be in his late 20s. FTD also pointed out that the 24 million people of North Korea are starving and suffering from malnutrition, as well as 200,000 people in political labor prisons.

Congratulations, Kim Jong-Un! You just got your face out, and you seem to have taken your father's evil legacy right away.

Source : FTD : Wer 2012 abtreten muss

LG 55 inch OLED TV Wonders

Source

From AP -

LG Electronics Inc. says it's planning to sell a 55-inch set based on organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. The Korean company is set to show it off at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which starts Jan. 10.Tim Alessi, director of home electronics development at LG's USA arm, said its set will likely go on sale in the fourth quarter. The company isn't revealing the price.
Paul Gagnon, an analyst at DisplaySearch, estimates that OLED sets will start out above $5,000.
The screen technology is in use in high-end smartphones and provides deeply saturated colors and high contrast. However, it's been very difficult to make larger screens with consistent results. In late 2007, Sony Corp. started selling an 11-inch OLED TV for about $2,500, but it never followed it up with a bigger model.
Apart from providing improved picture quality, OLED TVs can be very thin. LG's set will be 4 millimeters thick (3/16ths of an inch) and weight 16.5 pounds.

Look at that! I'm not a techie by any means, but that sure as hell looks really cool. Check out the video below for some really cool LG OLED TV action! (Source)

North Korea's New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year to all readers! In the past 10 months or so, I have accumulated more than 60,000 views. Not bad for my first blogging experience, right?

New Year's Day means new year's resolution. Have you made one? I know North Korea has!

North Korea vowed Sunday to make an all-out drive for prosperity as it unites behind new leader Kim Jong Un, ushering in 2012 with promises to resolve food shortages, bolster its military and defend Kim Jong Il's young son "unto death."...This year is a crucial one for North Korea as it tries to build a "great, prosperous and powerful nation" befitting the April 2012 centenary of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, the new leader's grandfather.
"Glorify this year 2012 as a year of proud victory, a year when an era of prosperity is unfolding," said the New Year's message, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "The whole party, the entire army and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong Un unto death." (Source)

Well, considering the food shortage, economic depression, and social structures crumbling... I think this is going to be another un-keepable new year's resolution