Table of Contents
Introduction
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea, is undoubtedly one of the most isolated and mysterious countries in the world today. With tight control over information and restricted access for foreigners, much of what we hear about North Korea comes filtered through heavy propaganda from the regime, or exaggerated scare stories in the media. But what is life really like for ordinary citizens in this reclusive nation? Beyond the bombastic official proclamations and military parades, there are real people trying to live their lives within the constraints of an oppressive political system. This article will try to go beyond the propaganda and myths to explore some realities of daily existence in North Korea.
First, some brief background on the country. The northern half of the Korean peninsula has been under communist rule since 1948, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established under Kim Il Sung. Positioned between powerful neighbors China and Russia, North Korea was shaped by Soviet influences during the Cold War. It remains a highly totalitarian state centered around the ruling Kim dynasty. Three generations of the Kim family have ruled the country through an elaborate personality cult. After Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994, his son Kim Jong Il took control until his own death in 2011, when power passed to the current leader Kim Jong Un. The regime retains tight control through pervasive propaganda, extensive surveillance, and harsh punishments for political dissent. This oppressive political system colors many aspects of daily life for North Korean citizens.
Daily Life in North Korea
Housing, Food, and Infrastructure
Despite dramatic propaganda footage of military parades and monuments, North Korea remains a very poor country in terms of infrastructure and living standards. Housing is a major issue, with many citizens living in cramped apartments or houses passed down through generations. Food shortages are a recurring problem, especially in rural areas. While the capital Pyongyang has seen modern development, smaller cities suffer from lack of electricity and access to clean water. Healthcare and education are nominally free and universal, but both systems lack resources and qualified staff. The state rations and allocates very basic necessities, but beyond that, people must fend for themselves to survive. Markets have emerged in recent decades where citizens can trade or buy additional food and goods, but economic activity remains extremely limited.
Education System
Education is highly ideological, with a strict approved curriculum focused on glorifying the Kim regime and the North Korean state. Children are taught to revere and obey the Kims from an early age. Critical or analytical thinking is discouraged. There is little access to information from the outside world or exposure to different perspectives. Still, going to school provides structure and purpose for North Korean children. Schools organize various activities, competitions, and field trips giving students some relief from otherwise drab surroundings. Higher education is limited to elite universities in Pyongyang reserved for the favored classes.
Healthcare System
North Korea’s health system has declined significantly since the national crisis of the 1990s. On paper there appears to be universal coverage, but hospitals lack staff, equipment, and medicines. Access to healthcare depends largely on connections and ability to offer bribes. Conditions are unsanitary, leaving patients vulnerable to infections. However, doctors make the most of limited resources, sometimes reusing syringes after sterilizing them. Traditional medicine is often used to supplement modern healthcare. Foreign aid groups have helped contain major disease outbreaks, but rural areas lack basic services. Patients may need to travel long distances to get care.
Employment and Economy
Most North Korean adults have official state-assigned jobs in fields like manufacturing, farming, teaching or the military. Salaries are very low, so corruption and entrepreneurship have increased to augment incomes. Many supplement their wages by trading goods and services on the informal market. The collapse of the Soviet Union meant loss of aid and shrinking trade. This caused a major famine in the 1990s after which the private markets exploded. Some state companies now allow workers to conduct private trading on site. The regime turns a blind eye to avoid total economic collapse. Still, unemployment and poverty remain high, especially in rural provinces far from Pyongyang.
Religion and Ideology
Freedom of religion is severely restricted in North Korea. The state has an official policy of atheism and suppresses independent religious activities. The only spiritual practice allowed is to pay reverence to the ruling Kim family, whose members are exalted to godlike status. People are expected to treat the Kims’ teachings as sacred and infallible. A form of ancestral socialism mixes elements of Confucianism and Christianity to deify the Kim bloodline. This gives the regime a religious-like hold which is hard to challenge. Worshipping other gods can be seen as a political crime. But pockets of underground Christian activity survive in remote areas.
Gender Roles and Family Life
Male-dominated Confucian gender norms prevail in North Korea. Women face discrimination in employment and political participation, despite some lip service paid to gender equality. Their primary role is seen as managing domestic duties and raising children. However, everyone must work hard to survive, so women labor in farms, factories and markets too. With men often away at military service, many households are headed by women relying on female relatives. Parents strive to shelter their children from hardships using humor and small luxuries. Loyalty to immediate and extended families takes priority over allegiance to the state. But relatives of those accused of crimes also face punishment under “guilt by association”.
Cultural Life
Literature and Arts
All creative expression comes under the control of the regime, but a lively cultural scene does emerge within strict limits. The state promulgates approved styles like “socialist realism” in art and bombastic patriotic odes in literature. But works occasionally use allegory and satire to express veiled criticisms. Popular novels feature heroic factory workers or soldiers battling imperialists. Plays use folklore and history to portray nationalist themes. Communist propaganda slogans abound in monuments and murals. All artists must conform to sanctioned norms if they wish to work. The foreign literature available is very limited.
Music and Dance
Many North Korean songs extoll the virtues of the Kims and the motherland. The accordion is a beloved instrument to accompany folk songs. Styles and themes are quite traditional compared to fast-changing popular music in the outside world. The organized Arirang Mass Games feature large gymnastic performances set to patriotic tunes. But despite control, unofficial underground music circles do exist. South Korean pop music, in particular, has infiltrated the North sparking interest among the youth. There are even reports of North Korean refugees forming K-pop bands.
Cuisine
Due to food shortages, North Korean cuisine is quite minimal and seasonal. Daily meals might involve kimchi (fermented cabbage), rice or noodles, broth, and tofu. Rural households grow vegetables in small private plots to supplement rations. Cornmeal or rice cakes are prepared for birthdays and holidays. The natural landscape provides wild fruits, herbs, mushrooms and meat to forage. As incomes rise, imported foods like pizza or fried chicken can be found in Pyongyang. Smuggling brings additional stocks of rice and instant noodles from China. Food aid deliveries help relieve shortages in vulnerable regions during harsh winters.
Sports and Leisure
The regime emphasizes fitness as a collective duty and national strength. Mass synchronized group exercises take place in schools, workplaces, and public squares. Popular sports include soccer, volleyball, table tennis, and weightlifting. North Korea participates in the Olympic Games, its athletes rigorously trained by the state. The most talented get recruited into elite sports schools from a young age. Leisure time is mostly spent at home with family or colleagues. There are state-run cinemas, but the film choices are very limited. Nature walks are a popular weekend activity. Picnics, card games, music, and conversation allow citizens some respite from daily grind.
Tourism in North Korea
North Korea severely restricts access for foreign visitors. Less than 10,000 Western tourists enter annually, watched over carefully during their stay. All must book with state-approved tour companies and follow strict itineraries with guides. Photographing military sites or portraits of the Kims is banned. Interaction with local people is limited to tour-approved sites. Visitors are shown a very sanitized version of Pyongyang life, with frequent staged displays and fake towns created to impress. Despite the artificial facades, some tours do offer glimpses of reality. Guides occasionally open up with candid insights. Citizens audibly murmur at the sight of foreigners. Behind the curtains, poverty emerges. But ethical questions persist about whether tourist money ultimately enables an oppressive regime.
Realities of the Regime
It is impossible to fully know conditions inside the secretive state. But accounts from former residents, satellite images, and undercover reporting all suggest the reality is bleak for many citizens under totalitarian rule. The Kims are revered as gods, with their teachings considered infallible. Constant surveillance, suspicion and fear of false arrest stifle dissent. The regime eradicates political opposition through violent purges, lifetime imprisonment in horrific gulag labor camps, or public executions. Citizens suspected of disloyalty along with three generations of their families face harsh punishments. During the 1990s famine while millions starved, the state continued exporting resources and hoarding food for elites. Citizens had to rely on black markets and smuggling just to survive. For many ordinary North Koreans, the state fails to deliver either physical or food security.
Relations with South Korea and the US
North Korea has been in a perpetual state of war with South Korea and the US since the Korean conflict was frozen in 1953 without a peace treaty. South Korea’s prosperous democracy and close US military alliance contradict North Korea’s ideology. The North depicting the South as a US puppet regime. Developing nuclear weapons aims to deter US aggression. Occasional provocations like missile tests maintain tension. However, in the last few years, more conciliatory moves have occurred between the Koreas. Kim Jong Un met with South Korea’s president in 2018 and 2019 to spur an unprecedented peace process. Subsequent US-North Korea talks reduced some military threats. But mistrust persists, and sanctions over the nuclear program remain a sticking point. Reunification seems an impossible dream for now.
Hopes for the Future
Can a country so shrouded in secrecy and oppression ever change? Some analysts see potential openings for reform. Kim Jong Un does not appear to share his father’s absolute ideological rigidity. He talks of improving people’s livelihoods and has allowed more economic freedoms. Greater flows of information seep across the Chinese border, exposing citizens to the outside world. So pressure for change may gradually build from within. Younger elites familiar with market economics could someday influence leadership. Or rapid destabilization could occur if the regime’s hold slips. However, dreams of openness and reform in the near future are tempered by the risks of volatility and power struggles. For now, change remains glacial but glimmers of hope exist.
Conclusion
This glimpse beyond the propaganda curtain reveals a North Korea that is more complex than the caricature of goose-stepping soldiers and nuclear war threats. A rich culture persists despite indoctrination and oppression. Citizens cling to family bonds and traditional values to withstand hardships. Young people hunger for outside pop culture and fashions. Small spaces keep opening up, with more room for informal enterprise and civil activities. The regime realizes some flexibility is needed for society to function. While positive change may be incremental, every small move brings North Koreans a step closer towards openness and freedom. Separating the people’s real lives from the state’s blinding ideology shows victims, not fanatics. The world should respond with empathy not fear.
FAQs:
What are the main myths about North Korea?
The main myths are that North Koreans are brainwashed zealots or helpless victims; that the country is utterly bleak and lifeless; that the regime could collapse overnight or start a suicidal war. The reality is more nuanced. North Koreans have gradually carved out spaces of freedom, culture persists despite repression, and change is most likely to come slowly.
What sources can provide insights into real life in North Korea?
Defector accounts, undercover journalism from the border, leaked information from the regime itself, foreign diplomats, NGO workers and tourists who have visited, satellite imagery – when pieced together these all provide glimpses beyond the facade.
How much do ordinary North Koreans know about the outside world?
Increasingly more through smuggled foreign media and those who have illicitly traveled outside North Korea and come back. Information flows in from across the Chinese border too. The younger generation especially hungers for outside media.
Can foreigners travel to North Korea?
Yes, through highly organized group tours. Visitors are closely monitored and only shown approved sites, so the reality is limited. But some tours allow glimpses of everyday life beyond the propaganda illusions.
Does North Korea have any potentially reformist leaders?
Some analysts think younger elites who have experience with unofficial market activities or foreign education may someday occupy positions of power and lean towards economic pragmatism and openness. But real political reform would threaten the core regime.