1. The founder of North Korea, first president Kim Il Sung,
created the country's policy of juche or "self-reliance," which
has essentially cut off North Korea economically and
diplomatically from the rest of the world even in times of great
need such as famines.
2. Kim Jong Il, son of the country's founder, has been said by
state media to have managed amazing feats: He scored a
perfect 300 the first time he went bowling and sank 11 holes-
in-one the first time he played golf.
3. Between 150,000 and 200,000 North Koreans live in prison
camps surrounded by electrified fencing, according to South
Korean government estimates and Human Rights Watch. The
worst camps are for those who commit political crimes, and
offenders can have their entire extended family imprisoned
with them. As many as 40% of camp prisoners die from
malnutrition while doing mining, logging and agricultural work
with rudimentary tools in harsh conditions, according to a 2011
Amnesty International report.
4. Only military and government officials can own motor
vehicles.
5. North Koreans must abide by one of 28 approved haircuts.
Unmarried women must have short hair, but married woman
have many more options. The hair of young men should be less
than 2 inches long, older men can go as long as 2¾ , according
to a Taiwanese website WantChinaTimes.
6. All legal televisions are tuned to state-controlled domestic
programming. The Internet does not exist other than a closed
domestic network. Cellular 3G access is allowed to foreigner
visitors. Few North Koreans know anything about world events
apart from how they are described by North Korean
propaganda.
7. North Korea's missile program was first developed with help
from the then-Soviet Union in the 1970s. Its Taepodong-2
missile has an estimated range of more than 4,100 miles but
has yet to be test-fired. Other medium-range missiles are
capable of being fired over Japan.
8. The border between North Korea and South Korea is one of
the most militarized in the world, according to the State
Department. Pyongyang has about 1.2 million military
personnel compared with 680,000 troops in South Korea, where
28,000 U.S. troops are also stationed. Nearly 6 million North
Koreans are reservists in the worker/peasant guard,
compulsory to the age of 60.
9. The World Food Programme estimates that 6 million of North
Korea's 25 million people are in need of food aid and one-third
of children are chronically malnourished or stunted. Analysis of
escapees from North Korea shows that those born after the
Korean War in the late 1950s were on average about 2 inches
shorter than South Koreans. Most North Koreans subsist on
corn and kimchi, a pickled cabbage.
10. In 1978, North Korean agents kidnapped South Korean film
director Shin Sang Ok and his wife, actress Choe Eun Hui, to
create a film industry in North Korea. The couple escaped to
the West eight years later, after having made dozens of films.
11. The elder brother to current leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong
Nam, was passed over to become the heir apparent leader
after being arrested in Tokyo in 2001 for traveling to
Disneyland on a forged passport.
12. As many as 2 million people died as a result of famine in
the 1990s caused by erratic government farming policies and
flooding, according to the United Nations. Asia Press reported
that a recent return of famine in the farming provinces of North
and South Hwanghae has forced some to resort to
cannibalism.
13. North Korea spent about one third of its national income on
the military, according to a 2011 report from the South Korean
government.
14. Annual GDP per capita is about $1,800, which ranks 197th
in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook. The GDP is
18 times higher in South Korea.
15. Electric power largely shuts down at night, and the homes
that have electricity often receive only a few hours per day.
16. Schoolchildren provide their own desks and chairs, and
money to pay for heat. Some students are forced to produce
goods for the government. Some parents keep their children
home by bribing teachers to keep quiet.
17. North Korea's regime gets much of its income by exporting
to Japan and elsewhere counterfeit pharmaceuticals, such as
Viagra, narcotics such as methamphetamine, counterfeit
cigarettes and fake $100 U.S. bills, and by selling small arms
and missile parts to terror groups and rogue nations.
18. Nearly all property belongs to the state. A modern
independent judicial system does not exist. Religious freedom
does not exist.
19. Foreign investment in North Korea reached $1.4 billion in
2010, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development. European and Chinese companies have opened
casinos for tourists and invested in mines for copper, nickel,
zinc, iron and gold. Mineral reserves are estimated to be worth
$6 trillion, says South Korean state mining company Korea
Resources.
20. North Korea has a network of informants who monitor and
report to the authorities fellow citizens they suspect of criminal
or subversive behavior. Unauthorized access to non-state radio
or TV broadcasts is severely punished.

SOURCE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/13/north-korea-factoids/2078831/

good info