Pretty much all of the very little I know about North Korea comes from articles like http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/glimpses-of-human... (e.g. #17 @ http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/glimpses-of-human...). Or http://www.asianscientist.com/2012/12/topnews/dprk-north-kor... -- that, plus the lights-out situation at night, plus their previous difficulties with rocket technology and their impoverishment, altogether gave me the impression that they're a couple decades behind other developed nations, technologically.
I always figured at least a little of that was propaganda of sorts, but there was also the occasional "I visited DPRK and took these surreptitious shots of what I saw" article that seemed to substantiate it.
Pretty much all of the very little I know about North Korea comes from articles like http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/glimpses-of-human... (e.g. #17 @ http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/04/glimpses-of-human...). Or http://www.asianscientist.com/2012/12/topnews/dprk-north-kor... -- that, plus the lights-out situation at night, plus their previous difficulties with rocket technology and their impoverishment, altogether gave me the impression that they're a couple decades behind other developed nations, technologically.
I always figured at least a little of that was propaganda of sorts, but there was also the occasional "I visited DPRK and took these surreptitious shots of what I saw" article that seemed to substantiate it.