North Korea world's lowest in democratic, economic development

North Korea has ranked near the bottom among the world's developing countries in terms of democratic development and the level of transition to a market economy, a German report showed Wednesday. According to the 2014 Transformation Index (BTI) drawn by a German think tank Bertelsmann Stiftung, North Korea stood at 127th out of 129 developing countries in terms of democratic and economic development. The BTI evaluates the quality of democracy, market economy and political management in 129 developing countries based on such data as the rule of law, social integration, currency and welfare regime, according to its website. In the scale that ranges from one to 10, with 10 representing the best, the communist country scored 1.98 points in its transformation level, followed by Somalia with 1.32 and Eritrea with 1.76. In sub-categories, the North ranked 125th in terms of political transformation earning 2.6 points and 128th in economic terms having 1.36 points, according to the report. Different from its poor performance in most of the categories including political participation, the rule of law and economic performance, the communist country earned nine out of 10 points in political stateness due to the state's monopoly of the use of force, the report showed. North Korea "has successfully managed the second hereditary succession," but it "has thus far continued to repudiate any substantial policy changes that would remedy the flaws inherent in the North Korean economic system," the think tank said in its report. North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un took the helm in 2012 upon the death of his father Kim Jong-il, who also inherited power from his father and the founder of the communist country, Kim Il-sung. "To maintain its survival, the regime has resorted to exemplary violence, and significant strengthening of internal security organizations and the penal system. Today, North Korea is one of the poorest, least-developed and most isolated countries in the world," the report said.