Although Pyongyang (which is the one of the few areas foreign travelers are allowed to visit) makes the country look like it is richer and more prosperous than it truly is, life looks extremely different throughout the rest of the country. Only the highest-ranking North Koreans are allowed to live in Pyongyang, and they must have permission from the government to do so. Unlike the rest of the country, people often own cars and bicycles, there is a subway system, and power exists throughout the city. Meanwhile, very few people in he countryside own a car, or even a bicycle, and animal-drawn carts are very common. Electricity in rural areas is rare, if it even exists at all. Proof of this is that when seen from space, there are almost no lights that can be seen outside of Pyongyang. Even in Pyongyang, power cuts are common.
As said earlier, starvation is very common way to die throughout the country. The soil in most of the country is not good enough to grow enough crops to feed people without any kind of fertilizer. As a result, people often steal human poop to fertilize the soil. People also go out into nature to look for anything to eat such as grass, bark, frogs, worms, etc.
Since the government does not provide the average North Korean person enough resources to survive, most North Koreans get what they need from the black market. Even though buying and selling on the black market is illegal, people are able to avoid punishment by bribing officials. They might give things such as money, gifts, or sexual favors. Most people buying and selling at the black market are women. This is because all adult men are required by law to go to work during workhours, even when their workplace cannot or will not pay them for their work.
Since electricity is rare throughout North Korea, tasks such as cooking and washing clothes take much longer and are more tiring. People often wash clothes in a river or creek and must start fires before they can cook.
Although healthcare is free in North Korea, most hospitals and doctor's offices do not have the medicines or supplies needed to correctly treat patients. As a result, many patients die or become crippled for the rest of their lives in the hospital. On one occasion, North Korea hired an eye surgeon from Nepal to because there was not a single eye surgeon in the country.
In order to raise money for the country, the government sometimes sends North Korean citizens to its allies, like China and Russia, to do work there. These jobs include food service in North Korean restaurants and logging. Even outside of North Korea, these North Koreans are often not allowed to interact with the local people outside of work, are forced to live in North Korean communities, and must obey North Korean laws.
Other ways North Korea makes money is through selling illegal drugs to other countries, making fake money of other countries, and stealing money online.
Historically, both South Korea and North Korea have the same set of values. In 1945, the peninsula was divided. Since then, the government of both North and South Korea were different. This has led to different developments in both North and South Korea.
Human Rights Watch says that free religious activities do not exist in North Korea. The culture in Korea has been influenced by that of China. Despite this, Korea has developed a cultural identity that is different from that of Mainland China.
Literature and arts in North Korea are state-controlled. Specialized committees of the KWP are responsible for this. Film is also a significant artistic medium in North Korea and Kim Jong Il's manifesto "The Cinema and Directing" (1987) is the basis for the nation's filmmakers.
Korean culture came under attack during the Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945. Japan enforced a cultural assimilation policy. During the Japanese rule, Koreans were forced to learn and speak Japanese, adopt the Japanese family name system and Shinto religion, and were forbidden to write or speak the Korean language in schools, businesses, or public places. In addition, the Japanese altered or destroyed various Korean monuments including Gyeongbok Palace and documents which portrayed the Japanese in a negative light were revised.
Both Koreas share a Buddhist and Confucian heritage and a recent history of Christian and Cheondoism ("religion of the Heavenly Way") movements. The North Korean constitution states that freedom of religion is permitted. According to the Western standards of religion, the majority of the North Korean population could be characterized as non-religious. However, the cultural influence of such traditional religions as Buddhism and Confucianism still have an effect on North Korean spiritual life.
It seems that Buddhists are accepted more than other religious groups. Christians are said to be severely persecuted by the authorities, often by throwing them in prison or executing them publicly. Buddhists are given limited funding by the government to promote the religion, because Buddhism played an integral role in traditional Korean culture. In May 2014, an American tourist was arrested at Pyongyang Sunan Airport after it was discovered he left a Bible in a nightclub on the DPRK's east coast. He was convicted of attempting to overthrow the government but was eventually released several months later. At the time of his imprisonment, there were two other American citizens held by North Korea awaiting transfer to political prison camps. Both have since been released.
Even though the country only has fewer than 25 million people, the country still has the world's fourth largest standing military at 1.28 million soliders. This is because North Korea has a law that requires all men to join the military for ten years after they graduate high school.
The government says it keeps a large military to protect the country from its enemies, particularly the United States and Japan. However, it is more likely that it exists to keep the government in power.
The land of North Korea is divided into nine areas called provinces and two cities.
The nine provinces are:
The main cities are:
Parliament
A parliament is a type of legislature.
The most famous parliament is probably the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which is sometimes called the "Mother of all Parliaments". The word "parliament" comes from the French word "parler", which means a talk.
The Althing, the national parliament of Iceland, was founded earlier (930 AD), so it is the oldest legislature in the world still existing. However, the Althing did not function as a legislature for four centuries, and its role as a "primary" legislature is modern.
Other parliaments have copied the UK and work similarly. They have three levels - a lower house which makes the law, an upper house which reviews the law (Decides if they like it or not, and suggest changes to it), and a head of state who is mostly for show and who starts and ends each year of parliament. The Prime Minister is almost always the person whose party has the most seats, but if the lower house does not think he is doing a good job they can call a vote of no confidence and ask him to leave his job as Prime Minister or have an election.
Sometimes people use the word "parliament" to describe a legislature, even if it is not a real parliament. A "parliament" is a type of legislature which has a Prime Minister.
A parliament is a lot like a congress but a congress cannot ask the head of the government to leave his job. Also, a congress runs for a number of years according to the country's constitution, but a parliament can be stopped as long as enough members agree. Elections are held after this happens.
Turing test
The Turing test is a test to see if a computer can interact with a person. The human should not be able to realise it is interacting with a computer.