- As speculation grows around the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, all eyes are on the Hermit Kingdom — one of the most closed-off places in the world.
- Propaganda runs rampant and presents a very different outlook on day-to-day life for North Koreans.
- But much of the country lives in poverty, thousands of people are held as political prisoners, and the government controls most aspects of life.
- In recent weeks, life inside the country has appeared even grimmer than usual as the coronavirus pandemic has struck North Korea's already-fragile economy.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un keeps a close watch over the media in his country, controlling much of what citizens know of the outside world, and vice versa.
Though Kim has fought to present the Hermit Kingdom to the world as a bastion of military might, nuclear power, and anti-West sentiment, the reality of daily life is grim.
Much of the country lives in poverty, tens of thousands of people are held as political prisoners, and the government tightly controls most aspects of life.
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READ MORE: A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea
Day-to-day life in North Korea can be bleak. Sanctions put in place to punish the nation for its nuclear weapons tests have crippled the economy.
Source: Business Insider
As the coronavirus outbreak hits, life has become even grimmer. Recent photos taken inside the country show residents wearing masks, walking through even emptier streets than usual.
Source: Foreign Policy
The country initially said there were no coronavirus cases — a highly unlikely scenario. But North Korea took preventive measures nevertheless, such as implementing quarantines, shutting down tourism, and closing its border with China.
Source: Brookings Institution
The Hermit Kingdom, one of the most closed-off places in the world, has experienced increasingly severe food shortages in recent years.
Source: Business Insider
Childhood in North Korea can be difficult. Many children in rural areas have to work on farms, and forced labor drives much of the country's economic output.
Sources: Business Insider, Human Rights Watch
Malnutrition affects a shocking number of North Korean children — roughly 28% of kids under 5 have stunted growth.
Source: New York Times
Poverty and hunger are most acute in North Korea's countryside. An estimated 41% of the population, or 10.5 million people, are believed to be undernourished.
Sources: Business Insider, New York Times
Xiaolu Chu, a Getty photographer who traveled through North Korea by train in 2015, said he noticed scores of people in rural villages begging for money. He shared some of his photos with Business Insider.
"There are nearly no fat people in North Korea," Chu told Business Insider. "Everyone looks very thin."
But even North Koreans in cities face poor living conditions. Many live in densely packed high-rise apartments and often experience electricity shortages and elevator breakdowns.
Source: Business Insider
And there's not much access to the internet — people make do with a closed-off computer network system accessible in only a handful of places, like this library in Pyongyang.
Source: BBC
But there are some signs that even despite the slew of economic sanctions on North Korea, its economy is beginning to stabilize, and market forces are taking hold. A number of North Korean defectors and recent visitors told The Wall Street Journal that factories in the country are expanding their output and living conditions in certain areas are better than they were.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
In an effort to prove that Kim is improving citizens' standard of living, the government even overhauled its public transportation system in 2019 to include new electric trams throughout Pyongyang.
Source: Associated Press
Much of North Korea's populace must rely on public transportation, as they are too poor to afford their own cars or even pay taxi fares. But even the new subways and trams look old-fashioned and worn down.
Source: Associated Press
The country's economy is largely fueled by the mining industry — particularly the coal trade, which is believed to rely at least in part on illegal shipments to China, according to a confidential United Nations report.
Source: Bloomberg
In 2019, the United States even intercepted one of North Korea's largest bulk carriers, which prosecutors alleged was used to "illicitly ship coal" in violation of international sanctions.
Source: Department of Justice
Photos of old North Korean mining towns show just how much the country's economy has crumbled in recent decades. The coal-mining towns of Kilju and Kimchaek were built around a once-vibrant ironworks complex, but an Associated Press reporter who visited in 2014 said the area had "become a rust belt, gritty and relentlessly gray."
Source: Associated Press
One of the most telling aspects of North Korean life is its military. The country's leader, Kim Jong Un, loves to show off its military might, holding flashy parades and distributing propaganda photos of vast armies of marching soldiers.
But it's rarer to capture photos that show the flipside of military life. North Korean soldiers are often malnourished or ill because of rigorous training and a lack of food.
As one soldier defected in 2017, others shot him five times. Surgeons in South Korea then made a shocking discovery as they rushed to treat his wounds: He was riddled with parasites.
Source: Business Insider
The parasitic worms, some of which 11 inches long, illustrate the poor conditions in North Korea. The country still uses human excrement to fertilize its crops, a practice that can spread parasites.
Sources: The New York Times, Business Insider
Defections aren't uncommon, though the number of people who did so dropped by 21% in 2017, to 1,127.
Source: Quartz
South Korea attributes the falling number in part to tighter border security. North Korean soldiers are ruthless when they see people escaping — here are bullet holes from when they tried to shoot a defector in November 2017.
Another disturbing aspect of life in North Korea is the country's notorious prison camps, where citizens — some of whom were found to have committed minor infractions that wouldn't be considered crimes in other countries — can face appalling conditions.
Source: Washington Post
Prisoners in these so-called re-education camps are often starved and forced to do hard labor. Some survivors have reported harsh interrogations and even torture. Though there aren't photos of the camps, they're visible on Google Earth.
Source: Washington Post
The regime also keeps a tight control over what information the public can consume. For instance, North Korean propaganda said in February 2019 that Kim was a frontrunner for the Nobel Peace Prize, ahead of his summit with President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Source: Radio Free Asia
Despite what North Korean propaganda claimed, the summit was widely regarded to be a failure after talks collapsed and the summit ended early without any meaningful progress on nuclear disarmament.
Source: Business Insider
The international community has long condemned North Korea's human-rights record. The US has highlighted victims of especially egregious brutality, like Ji Seong-ho, who attended Trump's State of the Union address in January 2018.
Source: Business Insider
Ji left his homeland in 2006. He said he crossed thousands of miles on crutches after enduring years of hunger, grievous injuries from falling on train tracks, and torture at the hands of North Korean police.
Source: The New York Times
"I understand you still keep those crutches as a reminder of how far you have come," Trump said during his State of the Union speech, adding: "Seong-ho's story is a testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom."
Source: White House
Today, that freedom is far from reality for many still in Kim's North Korea.
