East Asia is an area usually considered to include China, Japan, North Korea and South Korea. Let's start with Japan. The economy of Japan is a free-market, capitalist economy, similar to most Western countries. It's the third-largest economy in the world, with particularly strong car and electronics manufacturing industries. Like many developed economies, most of its gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the service sector (73%), with most of the rest being a combination of industry (26%) and agriculture (1%). Japan has little in the way of mining or other primary industry.

The Economy of China

The economy of China is known as a socialist market economy, which involves a dominant state-owned sector, operating in an open-market economy. Despite criticisms of socialist economies in the West, China currently has the world's largest or second largest economy, depending on what measure you use. It's also the fastest-growing economy in the world.

Unlike many Western economies, less than half their GDP is based in the service sector. Services account for 48% of GDP, followed by industry at 43% and agriculture at 9% as of 2014. Much of the 43% for industry is manufacturing - China is the biggest manufacturing economy in the world. China is also part of the WTO, APEC and the G-20.

The Economy of North Korea

The economy of North Korea is a command economy, or an economy where production, investment, prices and incomes are all determined by a central government. Another way of wording this is to say that the economy is centrally planned and doesn't rely on the market to spread money and goods around. With less support from other communist countries, it has been difficult for North Korea to maintain a successful economy, and it's therefore one of the poorest countries in the world. Though it's hard to make estimates because so little information about the economy is known, and the currency of North Korea is not exchangeable.

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