Jumping To Conclusions

From the New York Times the other day, discussing the economics of the Korean peninsula, and with emphasis added:

South Korea's economic pressures are causing it to look to North Korea, though. With a fast-growing economy now larger than Russia's, South Korea has driven its unemployment rate down to 3 percent while its wages have increased this year by an average of 7.3 percent. With a looming labor shortage, it is easing visa requirements for ethnic Korean workers from China and Russia.

Wow. The population of South Korea is about 48 million -- one-third of Russia's. Meanwhile,

With South Korea's per capita income at $8,900 and North Korea's at $706, many businessmen here dream of tapping into North Korea's labor pool.

Obviously the fact that South Korea is doing better than North Korea isn't news to anybody outside of Berkeley and the Carter Center, but the magnitude of the gap between them deserves to be repeated regularly.