Yeah, I guess they'll get shot.
Also, the mention of "closed-circuit system that feeds into speakers in homes and on streets but can't be monitored outside the country" reminds me so much of Brave New World/1984/Big Brother stuff.
My first thought was "How wicked!" Second thought was "Hey, but we have those thingies in Russia too!"
There is a wired radio system in Russia, established way back in the Soviet era, which transmits three radio channels. Simple receiver can consist basically of a loudspeaker and variable resistor as a volume knob, while more complicated receiver can receive one of 3 channels. There's a simple receiver on the wall next to me as I write this. Interestingly, I couldn't find any pictures of my exact model, so here's my (lame) attempt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22022497@N04/4154137046/ There's another, 3-channel one, of the latest incarnation (late 80's or early 90's) in the kitchen. When my dad bought it, I remember everyone coming to our house thinking it's a VCR, so that should say something of its size and form factor. It still sits up there near the ceiling mainly because of its large luminiscent clock on the front panel. We don't turn these radios on except maybe twice a year out of curiosity :)
These things fit the description "closed-circuit system that... can't be monitored outside the country" if by that you mean "wired"
One of my earliest childhood memories is falling asleep to one of these things.
Also, an obvious hack to monitor this "close-circuit" system: just attach a satellite transmitter to the output of a receiver.
Even cheaper: make a web radio out of one of these. Wait, you need internet access to do that...
That was all over the mainstream U.S. news not that long ago, even.
Poor? Maybe in terms of GDP. But certainly not powerless.
Nuclear war has no winners.
On the upside, North Korea isn't suicidal, and it's not like China was going to stop giving them aid anyway, so it probably makes little practical difference anyway.