If North Korea didn't exist, it would be hard to imagine it except as some futuristic dystopia in a sci-fi thriller. Marijuana is legal in North Korea. Indeed, its distribution is a government monopoly, while possession of pornography will get you shot or, worse yet, sentenced to a prison labor camp. Haircuts are tightly controlled. All North Koreans must adhere to one of 28 approved haircuts. Failure to do so may result in having police give you an on-the-spot haircut -- or much worse. Women have a choice of 14 hair styles, while men can choose from between 10. Best strategy: sport whatever haircut the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has and you should be OK.
Judges, on the other hand, have free rein to decide how to execute prisoners, including using 50-caliber machine guns or having a pack of ravenous dogs tear apart and consume a victim. Moreover, criminals (a concept that has a rather expansive definition in North Korea) are subject to the "Three Generations of Punishment" rule. Commit a crime and not only will you go to prison, but so will grandma and your kids. Pyongyang boasts the world's largest stadium, capable of seating 150,000 people and, at 105 stories, one of the world's tallest buildings. Little sport is played in the stadium, however, and the futuristic-looking skyscraper is unfinished inside and sits empty. North Korea has also built a Potemkin-style, uninhabited village, Kijong-dong (Peace Village), along its border with South Korea to tempt defectors from the south with North Korea's idyllic lifestyle.
People walk by a screen showing the news reporting about an earthquake near North Korea's nuclear facility, in Seoul, South Korea
That idyllic lifestyle means that the average North Korean is two inches shorter than his southern counterpart. Much of the population suffers from a lack of food, and one-third of children are malnourished. Neither of which prevented Kim Jong-il from spending three quarters of a million dollars on imported French Hennessy Cognac every year, about 800 times the average per capita income of a North Korean. North Korea claims 100 percent literacy, one of the few nations in the world to make that claim, although schoolchildren spend hundreds of hours learning the biographical history of the glorious Kim family. The country has its own calendar, year 1 being the birth of Kim Il-Sung in 1912, and its own time zone. We are currently in Juche (year) 105. On a more serious note, North Korea boasts the world's fourth largest army. At 1.2 million soldiers, it is only slightly smaller than the 1.4 million personnel in the U.S. armed forces. The military reports directly to Kim Jong-un, who at 34 is the youngest leader of a state, and who also has no military training or experience.
Pyongyang has tested five nuclear devices between 2006 and 2016, and is rumored to be readying a sixth test. In addition, it has developed a range of short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles that it claims can carry a nuclear warhead, and boasts that it will soon have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. To be considered a credible nuclear power in the 21st century, you need three things: a nuclear device capable of being fitted onto a missile, sufficient range on that missile to carry it for some distance, and a guidance system that will allow you to deliver the warhead to its intended target. Where does Pyongyang stand on each of these prerequisites?
Developing Nuclear Devices
