If you don't want to take me at my word, I can provide one (dumb) piece of evidence, then you can try to find some evidence to the contrary. Here's a video where some Aussies go get a haircut in NK where they echo a lot of what I'm saying: people are just living their lives, they never interact with the government during their stay. If you have a source that says something different and isn't from an enemy of NK then I'll check it out.

I don't think "government criticism should be placed where due - even if that's everywhere" is a very useful outlook for the world. I think we should first try to understand why countries are the way they are, and give our criticisms to the system that made them that way when appropriate. Again, think about the example of Palestine. Do Palestinian groups do things I disagree with? Absolutely. Is the way to tackle that situation to criticize them? No, because they're already facing a war of genocidal extermination, so if you want them to do better, you should first try to remove the aggravating factors that are impeding democratic forces within their camp from winning over the reactionaries. It's the exact same situation with NK: you don't think their government is sufficiently transparent, it's overly punitive, not democratic enough, etc etc? They won't change those things as long as they're under a genocidal blockade and the whole world wants them dead.