CNN: The secret capitalist economy of North Korea (HT: Victor Claar)
(CNN) -- Speculation in South Korean media that Kim Jong-Il may have cancer is the latest development in a busy month for North Korea watchers.
The U.S. Navy tailed a North Korean ship that was believed to have been carrying weapons bound for Myanmar. Diplomats bemoaned the state's reluctance to return to the negotiating table even as the regime in Pyongyang celebrated American Independence Day by lobbing seven short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.
But a worldwide network of amateur sleuths has been watching a different trend emerge in the Stalinist state: Capitalism.
This grassroots group of North Korean observers has watched the growth of village markets via satellite photos courtesy of Google Earth. They compare notes and analyze photography on the Web site "North Korean Economy Watch" (www.nkeconwatch.com).
"There's a whole bunch of small-scale private enterprises that have sprung up," said Curtis Melvin, founder of the site and an economist at George Mason University where he's working toward his doctorate degree. "With Google Earth, you can scroll back through time from the most recent satellite photographs and see how these markets are growing.
"In large towns you can see multiple markets, but you can find them in every town and every city," Melvin said.
The growth of these markets -- long on the fringe of legality in North Korea -- has caused government leaders to begin clamping down on the practice as a threat to the regime. ...
The U.S. Navy tailed a North Korean ship that was believed to have been carrying weapons bound for Myanmar. Diplomats bemoaned the state's reluctance to return to the negotiating table even as the regime in Pyongyang celebrated American Independence Day by lobbing seven short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.
But a worldwide network of amateur sleuths has been watching a different trend emerge in the Stalinist state: Capitalism.
This grassroots group of North Korean observers has watched the growth of village markets via satellite photos courtesy of Google Earth. They compare notes and analyze photography on the Web site "North Korean Economy Watch" (www.nkeconwatch.com).
"There's a whole bunch of small-scale private enterprises that have sprung up," said Curtis Melvin, founder of the site and an economist at George Mason University where he's working toward his doctorate degree. "With Google Earth, you can scroll back through time from the most recent satellite photographs and see how these markets are growing.
"In large towns you can see multiple markets, but you can find them in every town and every city," Melvin said.
The growth of these markets -- long on the fringe of legality in North Korea -- has caused government leaders to begin clamping down on the practice as a threat to the regime. ...
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