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Kelly McLaughlin and Katie Balevic
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- North Korea is home to over 25 million people, who are taught to worship their leaders, like Kim Jong Un, as gods.
- The country is culturally and economically isolated as many suffer from malnutrition and live in extreme poverty.
- Many North Koreans go to work every day on farms, in factories, and in the capital of Pyongyang.
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Little is known about the daily life of people living in North Korea, one of the world's most isolated nations.
The country is home to more than 25 million people, who from a young age are taught to worship their leaders, including the current Great Leader, Kim Jong Un, as powerful gods. Un has near-total control of the country and leads a repressive regime that is willing to do away with political dissidents, according to a 2022 Human Rights Watch report.
And while Kim boasts his great military and nuclear might to the rest of the world, many of his citizens quietly struggle, suffering from malnutrition and poor living conditions. Most citizens have little idea of what's going on in the outside world due to government restrictions on electricity, travel, and more, according to the Human Rights Watch report.
Still, North Korean citizens do participate in the workforce, though sometimes they do so against their will. Most North Koreans don't have a say in their professions and are assigned a job. Tens of thousands are being held in political prison camps where many are used for forced labor in mines, a United Nations expert told Reuters.
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Below, take a look into the mostly hidden world of the work-life of North Korea.
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Following a catastrophic famine in the 1990s, North Korea pushed to increase its agricultural production. Still, food insecurity in the region is alarmingly high, the UN recently said.
The country was receiving food aid until 2009, and in recent years, corn and rice production has improved.
Source: Associated Press
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Around 37 percent of all North Koreans work in agriculture and use primitive methods to cultivate the land.
North Korea's disdain for modern technological intervention is in part a way to add more laborers to the workforce. More machines would mean fewer workers.
Source: Associated Press
Source: CIA World Factbook
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Workers at Ongnyugwan, a popular noodle restaurant in Pyongyang, claim to serve 10,000 lunches a day. The restaurant was built in 1960 at the request of the late leader Kim Il Sung.
Source: Associated Press
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Kim Jong Il opened the Pothonggang Department Store in December 2010 in what officials said was an attempt to improve living conditions in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. The store sells electronics, cosmetics, food, housing goods, and more.
While comparatively wealthy North Koreans line up to shop at the store, poorer city residents instead buy goods via an extensive black market — often trading American dollars for products.
Source: Reuters
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Citizens are encouraged by the state to purchase domestically made cosmetics instead of foreign brands.
Source: Reuters
The 326 Electric Wire Factory in Pyongyang says it has 1,000 workers on any given day. When the Los Angeles Times visited in 2016, only 100 were on duty.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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North Korea has one major trading partner — China — to whom they sell minerals, metals, guns, textiles, and agricultural and fishery products
Source: CIA World Factbook
Images of the first Great Leader, Kim Il-Sung, and his son, Kim Jong Il, can be found throughout the country. This portrait adorns the wall of a hotel in Pyongyang.
Source: Associated Press
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The Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang textile factory, named after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's grandmother, claims to employ 1,600 workers, primarily women.
Source: Associated Press
At the Ryuwon Shoe Factory, Kim Kyong Hui said "the respected leader Kim Jong Un has instructed us to closely study shoes from all over the world and learn from their example."
Source: CBS News
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At the Suk Pyongyang textile factory, employees sort and process silkworms to produce silk threads.
Source: Associated Press
The Suk Pyongyang textile factory in Pyongyang has said that it produces about 200 tons of silk every year.
Source: Associated Press
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North Korea has historically struggled to produce the amount of fertilizer it needs.
Source: Business Insider
The Chollima Steel Complex in Nampo says it employs more than 8,000 workers. It's one of seven North Korean steel complexes.
Source: Associated Press
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The Chollima Steel Complex was built by Mitsubishi when Japan ruled over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Production briefly stopped after World War II but resumed in 1953.
Source: Associated Press
Men and women work together in rice fields in North Korea's Kangwon Province. The province's capital, Wonsan, is being developed into a summer vacation destination.
Source: Associated Press
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The state-owned Taedonggang Beer company has a shop in Pyongyang, where people can stop in for a drink.
It's nearly impossible to buy beer outside of North Korea, but it can be found in some parts of China.
Source: Associated Press
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Laborers in Rajin export seafood products to China at the Suchae Bong Corp seafood factory inside the Rason Special Economic Zone.
North Koreans are allowed to work in China, and some do work at Chinese companies within North Korea. But they do so at a price: Kim Jong Un's government takes a cut each worker's salary.
Source: Associated Press
The Kaesong Industrial Complex in Kaesong, North Korea, is the last inter-Korean rapprochement project. Though it is located in North Korea, just across the demilitarized zone from South Korea, the factory was first built as a place where South Korean companies could manufacture products using North Korean labor.
Source: Associated Press, BBC
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Officers in the Ministry of Public Security — North Korea’s daily law-enforcement agency — functions as a national constabulary who enforce laws.
Source: Britannica
In May 2022, Kim Jong Un blamed his own officials and their "irresponsible work attitude" for a surge in COVID-19 infections.
Source: CBS News
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