It's So Ronery In the Dark, With Negative GDP Growth

We've all seen the photo comparing North Korea's literal darkness to the bright lights of South Korea below: 

At The Washington Post, Brad Plumer has another striking illustration of the country's total economic failure—a graph showing the country's decades-long gross domestic product slump in relation to its neighbor's sure and steady growth. What's amazing is that Kim Jong-il actually managed to wreck the country's already miserable economy even further after he came power. The nosedive you see starting around 1994 follows Kim Jong-Il's rise:

Much more from Reason on Kim Jong-Il and his legacy of terror as North Korea's dictator here.