ITT I answer your North Korea questions

[oats]

Originally Posted by Witty

Are the North Korean people as oppressed and brainwashed as the media would have you believe?

brainwashed absolutely. by all accounts - defectors, humanitarian/aid workers, foreign educators - the propaganda apparatus is significant and comprehensive. information does sneak into the country, but most defectors still experience a great deal of shock regarding the living conditions of North Korea compared to other countries in the world (in NK, a lot of citizens think they are living better off than South Korea, Japan, China, etc).

oppression is a little more complicated. on the one hand, there is very little individual freedom, and neighbors spy on each other etc. people have been carted off for cracking jokes while drunk, things like that. the types of things you can be sent to labor camps for would be appalling in the west, things like questioning the government, traveling without state permission, or renting out your home (anything capitalist is considered an economic crime). but markets are becoming more common and less punished, which is a positive sign. in general, lower class/non party members have it worse, while those allowed to live in Pyongyang tend to have a more-or-less comfortable quality of life - though they live in a more suffocating and paranoid social atmosphere.

people are oppressed, especially by our standards, but we tend to think of them living in the gulags, or during floods/famines (a la the mid 90s), and that's not accurate. they trade with more countries than they used to, so as long as their isn't a big environmental shock most people are provided ample food, schooling, and work. mostly their legal system is punitive and crushing, and the irony is that in times of surplus the machine runs better, so individual freedoms are more restricted, whereas during times of famine, everything goes to shit so gov agents care more about surviving than they do about enforcing laws, thus freeing up the people in some respects.