ght, again
halted lending in 2001 when the government failed to institute
several anticorruption measures. Despite the return of strong rains
in 2001, weak commodity prices, endemic corruption, and low
investment limited Kenya's economic growth to 1.2%. Growth lagged at
1.1% in 2002 because of erratic rains, low investor confidence,
meager donor support, and political infighting up to the elections.
In the key December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI's 24-year-old
reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the formidable
economic problems facing the nation. In 2003, progress was made in
rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support. Since then,
however, the KIBAKI government has been rocked by high-level graft
scandals. The World Bank suspended aid for most of 2006, and the IMF
has delayed loans pending further action by the government on
corruption. The scandals have not seemed to affect growth, with GDP
growing more than 5% in 2006.

Kingman Reef
no economic activity

Kiribati
A remote country of 33 scattered coral atolls, Kiribati has
few natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits were
exhausted at the time of independence from the UK in 1979. Copra and
fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. The economy
has fluctuated widely in recent years. Economic development is
constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak infrastructure,
and remoteness from international markets. Tourism provides more
than one-fifth of GDP. The financial sector is at an early stage of
development as is the expansion of private sector initiatives.
Foreign financial aid from UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and
China equals more than 10% of GDP. Remittances from seamen on
merchant ships abroad account for more than $5 million each year.
Kiribati receives around $15 million annually for the government
budget from an Australian trust fund.

Korea, North
North Korea, one of the world's most centrally planned
and isolated economies, faces desperate economic conditions.
Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of
years of underinvestment and shortages of spare parts. Industrial
and power output have declined in parallel. Due in part to severe
summer flooding followed by dry weather conditions in the fall of
2006, the nation has suffered its 12th year of food shortages
because of on-going systemic