Beyond that, what are their plans for the future? How does its government function and what is the general opinion that the DPRK’s people have of their country?
Most importantly, where can I read about this sort of thing myself?
Beyond that, what are their plans for the future? How does its government function and what is the general opinion that the DPRK’s people have of their country?
Most importantly, where can I read about this sort of thing myself?
I’ll give you what I’ve learned from reading DPRK resources and watching documentaries.
On the surface, it’s just another third world country under sanctions. Socialism-wise, it’s a pretty solid system. State-planned economy with state ownership of means of production and collectivised agriculture. Pyongyang is very highly developed and a very nice place to live in, and although the other cities look depressing to some because of all the concrete the wealth gap isn’t really that big among people of similar professions.
Pyongyang has a robust public transit system with subways and trolleybuses, and there is lots of traffic at rush hour. I believe most of the other cities besides Chongjin rely mostly on buses and bikes. In general cities are small, all your basic needs are within walking or biking distance.
Under KJU the DPRK has been increasing its electricity output a lot, and most cities can expect electricity to be available, but there are frequent outages as in line with other third-world countries. Water is a bit more iffy, the pumps kind of suck and usually you can expect tap for like three hours a day, but it’s scheduled so you just have to time your showers and bring up water manually other times of the day.
Employment is guaranteed. You apply for a job at the employment office and your workplace will provide housing for you. Under the Taean work system you can elect your managers and make decisions affecting the nearly community, similar to Soviets in the USSR. Healthcare is guaranteed and high quality, but it suffers from sanctions. Medicine from pharmacies is insanely cheap. KJU revived the Public Distribution System, which provides monthly rations of basic groceries such as grain and fruits for a nominal price of about 20 KPW. Your rations are distributed to your home by your squad leader, who is an elected head of your apartment building who handles basic administrative tasks.
The average North Korean makes about 80,000 KPW a month from state jobs, although this can vary based on your profession. Although this is worth about $10 on the black market, it goes a lot further in purchasing power. There’s no income tax; the government funds essential services and government projects by raising prices on non-essential items. But since your basic needs are covered, your salary is basically pocket money. Some groceries like meat, dairy, snacks, and grains beyong your ration will be bought with your salary. Eating out in a restaurant in Pyongyang is pretty pricy, which a full meal probably costing you 1000 to 2000 KPW. Basically, you have to live a bit more frugally but you have more freedom with your money since you don’t really have bills to pay.
Work/life balance is honestly really good. The constitution guarantees an 8-hour workday, with reductions for certain professions like coal miners and women with children. Most factory workers work 9am-7pm with a 2 hour lunch break in between. Weekends are a bit more complicated; Sunday is off, but Saturdays are a “political education day” where people study the Juche idea and participate in their civic duties. The DPRK has 71 national holidays a year, all of which are a day off of work. On top of this you get paid time off and good maternal leave. Foreign companies working with the DPRK often complain that North Koreans have too many days off! Like other socialist countries it’s hard to get fired from your job and if you do, you usually get another job quickly, so there’s no worry of getting sacked for taking too many holidays.
Wages within the workplace are mostly egalitarian, but workers get decent bonuses for fulfilling personal quotas and there is a work-point system where workers are rewarded for small bonunses for working hard, helping coworkers, volunteering for cleaning up, etc.
Right now the DPRK is mostly focusing on closing the wealth gap throughout the country. Because of industrialization and the Ardous March the countryside often lagged behind a lot in development. When Kim Jong-Un took office it was one of his promises to deal with the urban-rural wealth gap. One of the major contributions to this was restarting the PDS so even the most mountainous regions can have access to basic calories. People in areas like Ryangang are still malnourished, but they’re no longer starving. There has also been a gigantic campaign of developing vollages, with new housing and factories being built.
The country is also continously striving for greater self reliance, especially under sanctions. Some great progress has been made on manufacturing locally-made medical equipment, buses, subway cars, and consumer goods so the country can save hard currency as sanctions continue to get worse. The transition to green energy is still slow due to a lack of raw materials but it’s moving along; solar and wind has gotten more prevalent and hydropower has been doing a good job with dealing with the oil sanctions and increasing electricity availability.
Here’s a good resource on that: http://www.lalkar.org/article/2654/the-democratic-structure-of-the-dprk
TL;DR: A democratic structure similar to other socialist countries. Universal suffrage at age 17, anyone can run for office. Unlike other socialist nations, parties other than the main vanguard party, the Workers Party of Korea, are legal and hold a sizable minority. Representative democracy functions alongside more local worker-council democracy in the form of the Taean work system.
Despite common belief, Kim Jong-Un is not a dictator. In fact, North Korea doesn’t even have a head of state; the role of president acted as head of state, and that post was abolished with Kim Il-Sung’s death, which is why he was referred to as the “Eternal President”. This also disproves that the DPRK is a monarchy since all 3 Kims held different roles in government, and KIS and KJI’s roles were split up into smaller positions after their death. As the socialist system develops in the DPRK, the collective leadership becomes more distributed and decentralized.
The DPRK people have a very strong revolutionary spirit, easily the highest of any AES state. There is a very strong collective spirit within the community as well. They support of the government is a bit harder to gauge, but the WPK, the main vanguard party, holds 88% of the seats in the Supreme People’s Assembly. I can’t find any sources on Kim Jong-Un’s approval rating, but if the 100% figure in elections given by Western media doesn’t even matter really much since KJU’s more of a representation of the country than someone with real political power.
Some good sources I recommend are the book a Capitalist in North Korea, which while a bit biased towards capitalism gives a good insight into daily life. YoungPioneerTours also has some good articles on aspects of daily life. Some documentaries I recommend are Boy Boy’s The Haircut, Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul, My Brothers and Sisters in the North, and the SAO Documentary North Korea World series. The Youtube channel Phuong DPRK daily has good resources and videos, the Korean Friendship Association has good reading materials, and of course reading the DPRK Constitution, Criminal Code, and their state media is a good resource as well.
I’ve barely scratched the surface about the DPRK, so please, please tell me if you have any more additional questions!