North and South Korea split in 1945 — GDP per capita now differs 56-fold

Korea was one country until it split in 1945. The North initially had more heavy industry from Japanese colonial rule and a higher income than the South well into the 1960s. Then the two governments diverged — export-driven markets in the South, closed central planning in the North — and by 2023 South Korea's GDP per capita was estimated at roughly 56 times the North's, making it a textbook natural experiment for how institutions shape prosperity.

— Standard economic accounts of the division of Korea, Economy of North Korea — Comparative GDP estimates, Bank of Korea