While there's no doubt that North Korea's regime is cruel and oppressive, and that they're very poor by generally accepted standards of measuring wealth, I've also seen quite a few documentaries suggesting that North Korea is also very different than how we view it.

I've seen one where a tourist sneaks a video camera into the DPRK, and manages to take quite a bit of video, and in many ways they're not so different from us. In most ways, actually.

They drink, go out for picnics, celebrate holidays, and do alot of the 'normal' things we do. The country looks clean, and the people aren't all walking skeletons.

I think the truth about DPRK is somewhere in between our western propaganda, and the communist propaganda... With a bit of sci-fi weirdness thrown in for good measure...