No it isn't (what you said) - This piece is purely an observation.

To understand something, you have to observe it. To really understand something you have to observe it in minute detail and ideally experience it.

Anyway, this is a small piece of research that provides us with a small detail about a culture that we, as outsiders, have little real contact with. Make no mistake that the vast majority of Norks are people that are just like you and me, except that most of them live way below a "bread line" that you or I would find intolerable.

Why not take the opportunity presented to discover a bit more about something that you know little about, instead of deriding 25 million people for being who they are or living where they do.