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{{quote|''You almost get the feeling that [Kim Il-sung] was handed a copy of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' in Korean that year and asked, "Do you think we could make this work?" And he thought, "Well I don't know, but we can sure give it the old college try."'' |'''[[Christopher Hitchens]]''', noting the coincidence that North Korea was formally established in 1948, the same year ''1984'' was written (although the book was published next year)}}
 
The [[Blatant Lies|Democratic People's]] [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Republic of Korea]], far better known as North Korea, is a [[In Name Only|pseudo-socialist]] state in East Asia which controls much of the northern Korean peninsula. A highly isolationist and rigidly controlled society, it has reasonable relations with its powerful northern neighbour, the [[Useful Notes/China|People's Republic of China]] <ref>Relations have soured considerably after the whole nuclear weapons rigmarole, now North Korea is more likely to serve as an embarrassment to China than anything else</ref> and unbelievably terrible relations with its southern neighbour, [[Useful Notes/South Korea|the Republic of Korea]] <ref> although the ceasefire from the Korean War was established in 1953, North and South are still technically at war</ref> and just generally bad relations with everyone else. It also possesses one of the largest armies in the world, and holds the record for highest military spending as percentage of GDP - so much, that rather than a third-world country with a military, it can be better described as a military with a country - but there's no need to worry because the army is so badly equipped.
 
Generally featured in fiction as [[Acceptable Political Targets]] and a sort of [[Captain Ersatz]] for China, as both happen to be a) [[Yellow Peril|East Asian]], and b) [[Red Scare|"communist"]] (while China itself is a major economic power with a growing media industry, and doesn't take too kindly to [[Yellow Peril]] portrayals). There have been some interesting non-fictional works made about the DPRK, such as propaganda films and documentaries from survivors of the regime.
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** [[Dystopia Is Hard]]/ [[Reality Ensues]]: It also shows just how poorly run Oceania really is (in that it keeps the people in line, barely, and that's about it).
* [[Egopolis]]: Pyongyang, the capital city, has pretty much been rebuilt as a tribute to Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.
** The [[Cult Of Personality]] in [[Useful Notes/North Korea|North Korea]] is so widespread that [[wikipedia:Propaganda in North Korea|propaganda]] celebrating the [[wikipedia:List of leaders of North Korea|Kim]] family is legally required to displayed nearly everywhere. [http://www.cracked.com/article_19646_5-creepy-forms-mind-control-youre-exposed-to-daily_p2.html\]
*** [[Christopher Hitchens]] stated that when he managed to get permission to visit North Korea with some of his friends, one of them claimed that when he went to the zoo the ''parrot'' started singing Kim Jong-il's praises! Whether it had actively been taught to do this, or had just heard it so often over the loudspeakers that it learned on its own is anyone's guess.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: North Korea's hatred of the USA was toned down for a brief moment in 2007, when a US Navy vessel assisted in the rescue of a North Korean vessel from Somali pirates.
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* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Their air force includes some relatively modern jet fighters, as well as MiG-15s (the Soviet jet fighters that fought in the [[Korean War]]), and even ''biplanes''. Pretty much, given their position and economic situation, they use whatever they can get.
** This was parodied in M*A*S*H with Five O'Clock Charlie, a North Korean pilot who regularly performed bombing raids on an ammo dump next to the 4077th...with an open cockpit monoplane and hand dropped bombs. Even funnier was that his attacks were so inaccurate, the 4077th personnel (and at least one General) took bets on how far off his bombs would land from his target.
** Many people who defect from or visit [[Useful Notes/North Korea|North Korea]] have reported that it resembles the [[wikipedia:Victorian era|Victorian era]] or the [[wikipedia:Edwardian era|Edwardian era]] in technology and architecture.
*** It is not always that old. Other tourists report that the areas outside the capital city resemble South Korea of the 1950's and 1960's.
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: Kijŏng-dong. See description in ''Crapsaccharine World'' entry above.
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