For the first time in a decade North Korea's economy grew more than South Korea's. The central bank says the North's gross domestic product grew 3.7 percent in 2008 from the previous year while the South's only grew a little over 2 percent.

But the impoverished state's GDP growth comes after two years of contraction, apparently thanks to a boost in crop production due to better weather and economic and energy aid to North Korea by countries in six-party nuclear talks in return for nuclear dismantlement. The Bank of Korea says since these are short-term factors, the growth does not mean the Stalinist country¡¯s economic conditions have improved.