From time to time, newspapers shower readers with predictions of a looming mass starvation in North Korea, usually in springtime. In March 2011, the New York Times wrote: "North Korea: 6 Million Are Hungry." One year earlier, in March 2010, the Times of London warned: "Catastrophe in North Korea; China must pressure Pyongyang to allow food aid to millions threatened by famine." In March 2009, a Washington Post headline read: "At the Heart of North Korea's Troubles, an Intractable Hunger Crisis."
The predictions come every year, but famine does not. Indeed, the last five to 10 years have been a time of modest, but undeniable, improvement in the North Korean economy. According to estimates from the Bank of Korea, gross-domestic- product growth from 2000 to 2011 averaged 1.4 percent per year. Anecdotal evidence and observations support such mildly optimistic estimates.
Malnourishment remains common, but few if any North Koreans have starved to death since 2000. A new middle class can now afford items that were unheard of in Kim Il Sung's time. DVD players are common. Refrigerators remain rare but are no longer exceptional, and even a computer in a private house is no longer a sign of extreme wealth.