With DPRK it seems pretty simple: Are citizens permitted to leave the country of their own accord? The answer of course is no, and that is extremely telling. Combined with choreographed & escort-only tourism, one really has to question it.

My opinion: Odds are likely that it really is a shithole in many ways and in many places (and for many reasons, sanctions included). That said, people will still live their lives within those constraints, because that's what people tend to do. We won't get accurate and verifiable information from their government about citizen health and longevity, causes of death, etc. so OP's propaganda must be taken as just that.

At some point NK's system will fall, and some historians and archeologists will get to do their thing, and we'll gain some more insights.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

It's important to recognize that a large part of why the DPRK appears to be insular is because of UN-imposed sanctions, helmed by the US Empire. It is difficult to get accurate information on the DPRK, but not impossible; Russia, China, and Cuba all have frequent interactions and student exchanges, trade such as in the Rason special economic zone, etc, and there are videos released onto the broader internet from this.

There's also the issue of the "defector industry." Many defectors like Yeonmi Park make money off of spinning tall tales, and many are pressured by the ROK into giving false testimony. Many citizens who flee the DPRK actually seek to return, and are denied by the ROK. Even BBC is reporting on a high-profile case where a 95 year old veteran wishes to be buried in his homeland, sparking protests by pro-reunification activists in the ROK to help him go home in his final years. A good documentary on the subject is Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul.

Finally, it's more unlikely than ever that the DPRK will collapse. The economy was estimated by the Bank of Korea (an ROK bank) to have grown by 3.7% in 2024, thanks to increased trade with Russia. The harshest period for the DPRK, the Arduous March, was in the 90s, and the government did not collapse then. That was the era of mass statvation thanks to the dissolution of the USSR and horrible weather disaster that made the already difficult agricultural climate of northern Korea even worse. Nowadays food is far more stable and the economy is growing, collapse is highly unlikely.

What I think is more likely is that these trends will continue. As the US Empire's influence wanes, the DPRK will increase trade and interaction with the world, increasing accurate information and helping grow their economy, perhaps even enabling some form of reunification with the ROK. The US Empire leaving the peninsula is the number 1 most important task for reunification, so this is increasingly likely as the US Empire becomes untenable.