Life in North Korea: 29 Facts That Will Shock You

What life under Kim Jong-un is really like

Starvation and execution are constant threats in North Korea, where ordinary people are trying to survive in a state that has forbidden most people from earning proper pay and restricting vital imports of food in the wake of COVID. 

Most outsiders know very little about what really goes on in the super-secretive pariah nation ruled by Kim Jong-un. What we do know is gathered from the reports of experts, defectors, and those who have risked their lives to tell their often harrowing stories.

From black market dealings to state-sanctioned haircuts, read on for 29 incredibly eye-opening facts about everyday life in North Korea. All dollar amounts in US dollars.

It is currently year 112 in North Korea

The year 2023 is still an awfully long way off in North Korea. The regime ditched the Gregorian calendar in 1997 and replaced it with the Juche calendar, which is based on Kim Il-sung's date of birth of 5 April 1912. In North Korea it's currently year 112. 

North Korea is the sixth most-corrupt country in the world

North Korea is currently the sixth most-corrupt country on the planet, according to its ranking on the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International. It shares its sixth-place position with Libya and Haiti. This marks an improvement since 2016, when North Korea was second only to war-ravaged Somalia, but still shows that the nation has a long way to go before it can be considered 'clean.' 

North Korea's GDP per capita is among the lowest in the world

Although North Korea's total GDP is relatively healthy at an estimated $19 billion, the most recent data from the CIA suggests the country's GDP per capita is just $1,700. That's one of the lowest in the world and the lowest outside of Africa. In fact, the majority of North Koreans live in poverty. According to the World Bank, a staggering 59% of the population works in agriculture, a sector where wages can be as low as $1-$2 a month.

Military expenditure is sky-high in North Korea

The latest data from Statista suggest that the North Korean government spends around 24% of its GDP on defense, the largest proportion of any country. That's more than double the percentage spent by Oman, which devotes the second-highest percentage in the world at 10.9%. 

Showing that Kim Jong-un cares more about flexing his military might than feeding his people, authorities have just described a failed spy satellite launch last month as the country's "most serious" shortcoming this year. Never mind the devastating famine that's causing whole families to die inside their homes...

North Koreans are trapped in designated castes from birth

North Korean society is based on a strict class system known as 'songbun,' which classifies every citizen from birth according to the status of their father. There are five key social statuses: 'special,' 'nucleus,' 'basic,' 'complex,' and 'hostile.' These are divided into around 50 sub-classifications, with a citizen's status determining the type of job they will be allocated and where they can live as an adult. 

Only the elite live in the capital Pyongyang

Only those lucky enough to enjoy 'special' or 'nucleus' status are allowed to live in the capital city of Pyongyang, which has roughly 10% of the country's population. The rest are effectively confined to the countryside, where conditions can be tough and provisions increasingly scarce. 

Property sales and rentals are outlawed in the hermit nation

Under North Korean law, anyone who sells, buys or rents a house can be sentenced to years of hard labor. People living in the same districts are allowed to swap homes. However, illegal property sales are common among the elite who can often bribe their way out of trouble should they get caught.

This picture shows residents in the North Hwanghae province being led to new accommodation by members of the military, after their homes were damaged by flooding in the summer of 2020. 

Mansudae is the capital's most exclusive residential neighborhood

Dubbed 'Pyonghattan,' the Mansudae District in Pyongyang is a hotspot for upscale apartments in soaring high-rises, offering luxuries such as 24-hour electricity and working lifts. The apartments are traded illegally among the elite for prices as much as $250,000. 

Pyongyang's iconic pyramid skyscraper is still unfinished

Mansudae may feature its fair share of gleaming towers but Pyongyang's most prominent building, the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel (pictured), is still a work in progress.

Construction began way back in 1987 and has been halted several times due to lack of funds. In 2018, an LED display screen was fitted to the exterior for showing propaganda films, making this colossal megaproject – which was supposed to house 3,000 hotel rooms and seven restaurants – not much more than a big TV. It reportedly cost around $750 million to build, approximately 2% of North Korea's GDP at the time. 

Luxury black market shops are an open secret in Pyongyang

People with acceptable 'songbun' have access to Pyongyang's growing number of high-end black market stores, which sell everything from imported electricals to luxury foods. For the most part these stores are tolerated by the regime.

According to a report by Reuters in 2015, black market goods have become so ubiquitous that the government must "reflect market realities" when driving economic reform or risk "losing its grip on power." 

The elite live lavishly while many North Koreans starve

North Korea's privileged classes have constant access to fine food and get to dine out at Pyongyang top eateries. Meanwhile the rest of the population get by on extremely meagre rations. In 2019, the government cut daily food rations to just 10 ounces per person a day, while an investigation by the UN World Food Programme found that poorer families eat protein just a few times a year. 

According to the BBC, which has been communicating in secret with three North Koreans, food shortages have reached catastrophic levels. An estimated 40% of the population is malnourished. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, finding enough to eat has become even harder. All three of the citizens interviewed by the BBC said they know families that have starved to death.

Pyongyang boasts the world's largest stadium

As well as its enormous statues of the three Kims, the North Korean regime likes to supersize its stadia. Encompassing 51 acres, Pyongyang's Rungrado 1st of May Stadium was the largest in the world by seating capacity when it opened in 1989. Recent renovation work is expected to have reduced the stadium's actual capacity from its official figure of 150,000 seats.

Six million North Koreans now use mobile phones

Smartphone use has increased among the North Korean elite, with the nation recording around six million mobile phone subscribers in 2020. Calls and texts are of course strictly monitored and international calls are well and truly blocked.

Possessing a foreign mobile phone or SIM carries a harsh penalty

To get around the international call block, many North Koreans use handsets and SIM cards smuggled in from China. Costing around $500 in bribes to border guards, these cards can pick up Chinese mobile networks – but the risks are high. Possession of these devices is illegal and could land the user a stint of hard labor in a prison camp.

According to the BBC report, a recent crackdown means owning a Chinese phone has become even more dangerous. People are now urged to turn themselves in during weekly community meetings, with one of the BBC's contacts claiming they know someone who was sent to a re-education prison "for several years" after being caught talking to someone in China.

 Pictured is a North Korean border guard watching a boat from the Chinese town of Dandong being unloaded in Sinuiju.

'Internet' access is only available to the very few

North Korea's 'internet' is more like a basic company intranet with just 5,500 websites, according to reports. All foreign sites are banned. Computers are only available to select elite citizens and even their activity is closely monitored. State-sanctioned websites include Air Koryo, the country's airline. Users can also access Naenara, which is a propaganda web portal that became the nation's very first website when it was launched in 1996.

North Korea's internet has previously been targeted by a "lone American hacker" known as P4x. The hacker succeeded in overwhelming the system by flooding it with artificial traffic in revenge for a cyberattack he suffered in 2021, believed to have been carried out by North Korean spies. 

Cash is king in North Korea

The country's Central Bank, Koryo Bank, issues a limited number of payment cards. These include the Narae, which is used by a minority of the elite for foreign currency transactions, and one very basic credit card that's only accepted in select Pyongyang department stores. The vast majority of people use cash, with many stores happy to accept US dollars. 

There are (almost) no ATMs in North Korea

Despite the fact that most North Koreans rely on cash, ATMs are few and far between. In fact, two of the only ATMs in the country can be found at Sunan International airport in Pyongyang (pictured), but the machines are principally designed to serve tourists and wealthy Chinese businesspeople.

According to a 2017 report by CBC News, the ATMs don't even dispense North Korean currency. 

Skinny jeans are against the law

Fashion styles tend to be conformist in North Korea, especially in Pyongyang. However, people living in the city of Chongjin have had access to trendier items of clothing that are smuggled in by boat from Japan. The local elite in Chongjin have even been known to sport skinny jeans.

All of that changed in 2021 when Kim Jong-un cracked down on symbols of a "capitalist lifestyle." According to reports, the leader has outlawed skinny jeans, nose and lip piercings, and branded T-shirts.

Hairstyles are strictly policed in North Korea

It's not just your clothing that will have the fashion police knocking at your door in North Korea; anything that deviates from the 28 state-sanctioned hairstyles is a no-go. There have been mixed reports about the exact hairstyle rules for men, with some Western media outlets reporting that they're obliged to copy Kim Jong-un's iconic undercut, while others have claimed that it's strictly illegal to do so.

Women have slightly more choice, with up to 18 haircuts to pick from. However, married women must keep their hair short. 

The battery-powered bicycle is the latest elite status symbol

Due to incredibly low wages throughout the country, only the upper echelons of society can afford to own a car. Many Pyongyang residents cycle as their main means of transport, so it's no wonder that imported Chinese battery-powered bikes are one of the latest must-haves. 

Only 3% of the country's road network is paved

Outside of the capital city, North Korea's road network is mostly made up of dusty dirt tacks. According to the CIA World Factbook, out of a total of 15,880 miles of roads, only 450 miles are properly asphalted. 

Famine is always a threat in North Korea

As many as 3.5 million North Koreans are estimated to have died during the major famine that hit the country in the 1990s. And now the economist Peter Ward who studies North Korea has said the accounts published by the BBC are "very concerning."

"It's all well and good to say you've heard about people starving to death," he says, "but when you actually know people in your immediate vicinity who are starving, this implies the food situation is very serious – more serious than we realized and worse than it has been since the famine in the late 1990s."

In his New Year speech last year, Kim Jong-un described the ongoing food shortages in North Korea as a "great life-or-death struggle" and said his main goal for 2022 was economic development. A propaganda film showed the leader looking remarkably slim and claimed he's "completely withered away" with worry for his people – but the reports coming out of North Korea paint a very different story and suggest economic development was far from the agenda last year.

North Koreans are shorter on average than South Koreans

Research from Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul shows that years of malnutrition have had an impact on the height of the average North Korean, who is 1.2-3.1 inches (3-8cm) shorter than the typical South Korean. The World Food Programme has said that "one in every three children remains chronically malnourished" or too short for their age.

North Korea grows plenty of fruit, but exports most of it

North Korea is actually one of the world's biggest fruit producers, with the most recent statistics showing the country produces 779,490 metric tons of apples a year. However, the dictatorship has historically chosen to export most of the produce rather than feed its hungry residents.

In 2019, North Korea exported $2.19 million worth of vegetable products and $1.7 million of other food goods, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). 

Jobs are painfully dead-end in North Korea

Hate your job? Spare a thought for the North Korean workforce. Most citizens are assigned a role when they leave high school that they are stuck with for life, unless they can scrape together money to bribe an official. The majority of the population is condemned to a life of farming, while teaching, factory work and hairdressing are common professions in the cities. 

Because male careers are typically more regimented, many men rely on their wives' income to survive. Often, this income will come from selling smuggled goods such as medicine, fruit or cigarettes – but according to 'Ji Yeon' (not her real name), a shop worker who used to steal produce to sell at markets for extra money, this is becoming increasingly hard. In her report to the BBC, Yeon said the authorities have "made it impossible to have a side hustle" and her bags are now searched as nobody can afford to lose anything.

Most people scrape by on just $1 or $2 a month

The vast majority of North Koreans take home an absolute pittance in wages. Even if they can moonlight in their spare time they can only expect to earn an extra $12 a month or so.

According to Salary Explorer, the average salary bracket starts at 49,100 KPW a month, the equivalent of around $55. However, as North Korea doesn't share financial information and most people get paid in cash, this figure is likely to be inaccurate. As mentioned earlier, farmers reportedly earn just $1-$2 on a monthly basis. 

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans live in prison camps

Human Rights Watch and the South Korean government estimate that between 150,000 and 200,000 North Koreans live in prison camps where conditions are extremely harsh, especially for those convicted of political dissent. Pictured is a Siberian labor camp in North Korea’s gulag system. 

Detainees' families can be locked up with them

Under North Korea's 'three generations of punishment' law, the entire extended family of a person who's perpetrated a crime can be imprisoned – kids, aunts, cousins, the lot – along with the subsequent two generations.

Many detainees do not make it out alive

Amnesty International has reported that as many as 40% of prison camp detainees die from malnutrition while engaged in hard labor. The work is tortuous and can range from back-breaking mining and logging to being forced to dig your own grave. 

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