Capitalism v. communism: the Korean peninsula example (updated)

The cool picture below comes from a posting by Laura Freschi at the Aid Watch blog. The idea is that the amount of light that can be seen from outer space acts as an interesting proxy for GDP growth. See the NBER working paper, Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space by J. Vernon Henderson, Adam Storeygard and David N. Weil for details.

The picture shows the Korean peninsula in 1992 and 2008. It highlights the very dramatic contrast in long term growth, as measured by light, between North and South Korea, and gives a picture of how quickly South Korea has developed over the last two decades and the south's growth relative to the north.

Update: Tim Worstall got here first, he thinks Economists Are Beginning to See the Light.