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Social scientists like data, sometimes to their detriment. Thanks to my daughter Kit, I was alerted to the Passport Index, an interactive tool that ranks the passports of the world based on a simple metric: the number of countries that the passport holder can visit without a visa (either altogether or because they can be obtained on arrival).
The US and the UK top the list with 147 countries each. But I was interested to see that South Korea ranks extraordinarily high, at 145 along with only France and Germany and—as a result—ahead of all other Asian countries. I confess that I am getting tired of endless—and often pointless—North-South comparisons. But North Korea, as might be expected is toward the bottom of the list although not all the way at the bottom. In fact at 73 (with Lebanon, Cambodia and Gabon), it outranks 25 countries, sadly including two countries with which the US has had a trying association over the last decade: Iraq and Afghanistan. My hypothesis: Third Worldist solidarity might be responsible for this ranking.
But the issue is unfortunately moot; since exit is tightly controlled, it is not clear how many passports have ever been issued outside of officialdom. As always NKNews was on the case with a piece last December providing a little history. Apparently, access to passports has increased, but many are secured only with bribes that run to as much as $3000 or “30 leaves” in North Korean slang. That in itself speaks to many changes in North Korea, including the growth of private wealth and the interest of those wealth holders in being able to exit. Another interesting detail: North Korea is one of a handful of countries in which citizens leaving the country actually have to secure a re-entry visa. Ponder that for a minute.
