North Korea

[FredPuli43]

Has anyone got any figures on North Korea's expenditure on its enormous army as a percentage of its GDP? It appears that it cannot feed its people without recourse to foreign aid. Who is paying the bills and how much, to prevent the country being bankrupt in practice and the regime collapsing, and more importantly, what benefit do the donors get from this exercise?

[Gromit]

// Four countries, China, South Korea, the United States, and Japan, have dominated the provision of food aid, contributing over 75% of the total since 1995. North Korea has been adept at turning from one donor to another, opportunistically seeking out the least stringent terms.

After peaking at over 900,000 MT in 2001, assistance provided by the WFP fell dramatically over the following years until 2008, when a large U.S. contribution brought up the WFP total. There were two primary reasons for the decline in WFP assistance. The first was “donor fatigue,” as contributing nations objected to the North Korean government’s continued development of its nuclear and missile programs as well as tightened restrictions on donor agencies’ monitoring of shipments to ensure that food is received by the neediest. The emergence of other emergency food situations around the globe also stretched the food aid resources of the United States and other donors. Whatever the causes, the WFP was unable to fill its goal of 150,000 MT for the 2006- 2008 period. During this time, increased bilateral assistance—outside the WFP’s program—that China and South Korea shipped directly to North Korea, as well as improved harvests in North Korea, appear to have made up much of the gap, which generally is estimated to be in the range of 1 million MT per year. //

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R40095.pdf

Primarily, China, South Korea and Japan are buying stability in the area. The US is buying influence, particularly on Nuclear weapons. Though those four countries do not appear to be getting what they want for their aid.

[Gromit]

// Military spending is estimated at as much as a quarter of GNP, with up to 20% of men ages 17-54 in the regular armed forces. //

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2792.htm

A quarter is a lot, but it isn't bankrupting the country.

[abstibus]

This is probably not relevant, but I watched a documentary on Friday on the DPRK that had an interview with a former colonel in the army who had defected.
I don't know how credible he was, but he said that the army was malnourished: official army rations were only rice and salt, with a piece of pork on Kim Jong-Il's birthday. The soldiers' digestive systems were unable to cope with this sudden rich food, and many of them subsequently suffered from severe diarrhoea, with many dying.
He claimed they died from malnutrition.
Soldiers had to buy/forage/?steal what they needed. When I took a closer look at the parades, it seemed clear that most of the the ordinary rank and file were scrawny, in comparison with the well-fed officers.