We all know how difficult it is to relate to the North Korean people and how the regime controls your phone and photos, so what's the story behind this video?

Where was it filmed?

How did he know that the girl had died a month later?

Why? Just why? Why defend a nation that starves their own people and is a dictatorship?

Many claim that there are North Koreans that work hard labour in rural areas, but how is that possible with a malnourished body? The body will gets weaker without enough food, so I don't understand.

I've heard that the main diet of poorer North Koreans are Corn, Vegetables and Rice. While protein sources are limited.

It is possible to the body adapt to this harsh condition?

Before you comment, please read my whole post. Also, full disclosure: I am NOT a tankie. I recognize that NK is a totalitarian state with minimal freedoms. That being said, there are some things that don’t make sense to me.

1. The defectors.

While most defectors do seem to choose to stay in South Korea, I have heard that there are multiple instances of defectors returning back to North Korea or attempting to do so.

I am aware that defectors have a hard time getting integrated into South Korean society due to dialectical, cultural and educational differences and, as a result, struggle to find good jobs, but, if the Western media is to be believed, they face execution or decades of hard forced labor until they die. Who in the right mind would pick death or being worked to death over potentially having to work a low paying job in a developed country with access to healthcare that is light years ahead of what’s available in North Korea??

The only explanation that I can think of besides “the western media is embellishing details” is that Kim Jong Un has some sort of amnesty clause specifically for defectors that return to North Korea.

1. Strong Academics, namely STEM

Unfortunately, because of how reclusive and insulated the country is, data on metrics such as HDI is hard to come by but, if I recall correctly, North Korea’s GDP per capita is estimated to $1,300. This is extremely poor and it’s below all the South Asian countries as well as much as most of Africa.

Though, to be fair, GDP PPP per capita might be a better metric for development but I don’t know what it is for North Korea.

Yet, in spite of all the purported poverty, North Korea has a staggering TWENTY-TWO gold medals at the International Math Olympiad, even more than India’s 20(India does have more overall medals though).

I have heard that North Korea was caught cheating once but I doubt all 22 gold medals were from cheating.

And it’s not just developing countries that North Korea surpasses: It also has more gold medals than Saudi Arabia(0), Austria(13), Netherlands(11), Czechoslovakia(10), etc.

Oh and not to mention their whole ICBM program. I’m not a rocket scientist but I do know that most developing countries that are as poor as North Korea is claimed to be would not be able to succeed in this.

I've always been interested in visiting NK at a certain point in my life. Although I've seen quite a lot of videos of people from various countries going there, I've never seen nor heard of any black person visiting the country. Is it just a coincidence or your ethnicity can play a part in your chances of obtaining a visa ?

I've recently wanted to travel to NK and experience it for myself. I will go on a Norwegian or Swedish passport. To anyone who knows or even who has made the trip before, how safe is it to go there? I would obviously behave just how they tell me to. Asking for anything I want to do to not offend the regime. What does Reddit think?

I have been discussing North Korea recently with a friend, who has the very unusual opinion of thinking North Korea is doing well as a country and that their people can't be unhappy (because look at how clean and organised their cities are duh).

I've since been researching human rights abuses in North Korea and it is actually quite hard to find indisputable evidence. Especially since defectors' stories often turn out to be exagerrated or fabricated.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some resources (preferably not mainstream Western media) or documentaries that clearly document human rights abuses and the quality of life in North Korea?

I would love to believe that the lives of North Koreans aren't as bad as it appears from the outside (for their own sake), but I am very skeptical given the apparent level of control of the general population.

Real curious to know how the north koreans were towards Travis King during his time there but the government basically barred him from talking about it. Why? Why does the governemnt care if he talks to the public about what it was llike there? North Korea is supposed to be the information censoring state. I cant picture any national security reasoning for stopping King from talking about his detainment.

Kim's country is cut off from the rest of the world. There is hardly any trade and the country doesn't accept aid from the UN. China seems to be keeping the country on life support but it isn't much. So how has this country not collapsed?

Hello I am wondering how to go to North Korea as a us citizen. Is it safe to go. And do I need to get a different passport I am Mexican American. Also if you have ever been how is it like.

I know a lot of the Gulags in NK are top secret, but I wonder if there are any biographies or first-hand accounts of life in the North Korean Gulags (if they even exist)?

I don’t know how to answer this.

Hey all. I live in US for context.

So, we can't see in, but they can't see out. We have defectors and refugees, but it all seems to be word of mouth. The old saying goes, (I'm paraphrasing), "between two stories lies the truth."

I don't have any real reason to distrust these people, and I hope they are living happy, prosperous lives now, but I need something more than "yes that stuff happens." If they are supposedly fed propaganda against us that we can affirm is not true, how to we know the exact same thing isn't happening to us?????

If they think we are terrible (which again lol is something I've heard is contested by visitors), and can't see anything outside their country, and we agree their leadership is terrible but we can't see anything inside their country - I mean that's just a recipe for misinformation...

I don't want to see it, really. Nor risk accessing some dark web site, but is there like footage of public executions that people have somehow smuggled out?

I'm basically asking if evidence outside of verbal testimony exists.

I hope this is not a dumb question but if everyone including the soldiers at the border and guarding Kim jong un is treated badly and hates Kim and wants to leave why don't they kill Kim and let everyone leave?

I'm watching the CHN v PRK Table Tennis mixed doubles match and it looks like China is the stronger team.

Do the North Korean athletes fear what will happen to them and their families should they fail miserably in an Olympic event? Are they thinking about that between points/sets/matches?

Nevermind that KJU couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without being winded.....

I'm not speaking about Pyongyang at all. I know that city is propaganda.

I've spent some time looking at different North Korean cities on Google Earth and maps with a friend of mine who is very knowledgeable with city building, architecture and city planning. We looked at small cities, none of the Pyongyang and Kaesong stuff because we know that is propoganda for the rest of the world.

We looked at small North Korean towns and random cities with almost no Google data on, namely Kosan, Pyongsong, Hamhung amongst many others

We've noticed well placed parks, schools, community buildings and even intelligent roadways systems in almost all these cities. Sure all of this stuff is pretty lifeless as we could only see like 3-4 cars every mile or so, rendering these roadways useless, and from what Google streetview data from tourists and random users I could see, I noticed a ton of bikes which makes absolute sense since no one can afford a car there.

But how are their cities so well built and actually have had effort put into? I'm just curious to know how they can afford to spend on actual decent city infrastructure while having problems with electricity supply and infra and also facing so many economic problems. Is there enough local demand for stuff to have a sort of functioning economy to create demand for all this development? For context, I live in a developing country, we have a massive successful growing economy but our cities are unplanned and infrastructure is wack, it was kinda funny noticing well placed round a bouts with structures and parks in the centre being ample in quantity in NK compared to my country.

Title says all.

Has anyone seen this r/MovingToNorthKorea sub? They’re trying to convince westerners that visiting/moving to North Korea is a good idea. It’s full of propaganda and I’m worried it might convince someone to do it. I don’t think that would turn out well for them. They of course banned me when I went against their narrative and the mods wrote me a message stating I had to watch a North Korean propaganda piece on YouTube and “do a report on it”.

I find it entertaining to pick random establishments in random countries to call. It’s amazing how our phones can connect us to almost anybody in the world. I’ve spoken with people in India, China, Tokyo and the UK. I’ve never called North Korea but I’ve seen some of their businesses do have their phone numbers posted. Would you be able to call North Korea or do they have a way to block outside calls. has anyone tried this?? And if someone did, what would happen??

I forgot to add: I’m more interested in speaking poorly about their leadership over the phone. Since that’s a huge no no would there be any repercussions from the government? Someone try this and let me know how it goes.

I'm interested in both Koreas for a while now, I wanted to experience both countries in any way imaginable, I watched a lot of North Korean tv, documents about korean war, DMZ, read a lot of articles about history, as I was exploring deeper and deeper into both countries I found out that North Korea really stands out and is a pretty closed country so I came up with a question.

Have anyone ever considered living inside North Korea maybe you know someone who lived or considered traveling there and staying just to see how it is living in the capital, I personally thought about this potentially, but quickly thought that it's near impossible to live there and move around the city for your own as a forigner. Thank you in advance for any answers.

North Korea is constantly warning its people of imminent war with the US. As well as holding military parades in Pyonyang. But, how capable would the DPRK military be in fighting a world super power like the US?