North Korea: The Undiscovered Country Quiz

Answer: Juche (one party state)

North Korea's political system is not exactly what we call a "communist society" but it is called "Juche", an ideology conceived by the former leaders Kim Yong-Ju and Kim Jong-Il, a system which combines Marxism and nationalism ruled by a single state party. Surprisingly, elections are held every five years but only with one candidate on the ballot...

Answer: 106

The calendar of North Korea which was first implemented in 1997, and is measured in "Juche Years". The calendar begins with the birth year of Kim Il-sung (1912), the founder and former President of the country.

Answer: Smoking pot

Internet is prohibited for the masses and can be used only by a few officials. A small minority of people can use the "Intranet", which is a strict internal state network. The laws are strict and can inflict even the penalty of death if you attempt to make calls to other countries or watch foreign TV channels.

However, Kim Jong Un's regime does not consider marijuana to be a drug. Marijuana, which is known as "yoksam" in the Korean language, is not criminalized in North Korea, which appears to have a liberal policy of tolerance about it!

Answer: It depends whether the ball touches the rim or the net only.

North Korea rewrites the basketball rules. Shooting past the arc can give you four points if your ball touches only the net but if it hits on the rim as well then you get only miserable three! Slum dunks worth three points instead of two, while missing free throws can deduct your score by one! (I am sure Shaq would disagree with that rule). You might think that you have lost the game in the last minute if you are behind 20 points, but that is not true because in North Korea field goals in the final three minutes of the game are worth eight points! Wow!

Answer: Yes, you can do both but only under certain circumstances, provided you always follow the guidelines of your tour guide.

There are still restrictions on photography in some parts of the country and much will depend on your guides (you cannot take pictures of empty shelves for example or snapshots of normal people...) but it is true that tourists have managed to take thousands of pictures in North Korea. For many years North Korea required visitors to relinquish foreign phones at the border until their departure, but since 2013 the country has loosened many mobile phone restrictions for foreigners who can buy a sim card in Pyongyang airport to make international calls (probably monitored as well). Hotels also provide the option to make international phone calls. North Korean citizens are not allowed to make international phone calls and they are restricted to use only the county's limited cellphone network. Until 2010, only 100,000 citizens owned a cellphone but seven years later this number was increased to 3,000,000.

Answer: True

According to the CIA World Fact Book, North Korea's literacy rate is 100% which means that 100% of North Koreans aged 15 and over can read and write. Impressive if true!

Answer: The North Korean citizens can have only one haircut style.

Political crimes against the state of N. Korea are considered a grave offence. The regime has adopted the "three generations of punishment" rule, meaning that if one person violates the law or is sent to prison, their children, parents and grandparents are sent to work with them too.

Many babies are also born inside the camp and spend their entire lifetime as prisoners because of that rule. At least 200,000 prisoners live in concentration camps where 40% of them die of hunger. There are about 34,000 statues of the former leader Kim Il Sung who is worshiped like a cult, while it is not true that you can have only one haircut style in North Korea.

As a matter of fact, you can choose one from the 28 state-approved hairstyles if you are a man, and one of the 14 if you are a woman! Plenty of choices!

Answer: He wanted to visit Disneyland in Tokyo

Kim Jong-nam, who once was believed to be the designated heir of the regime, appeared to have fallen out of favor after being arrested in Tokyo in 2001 while travelling to Disneyland on a forged passport. Eventually two years later he was exiled from North Korea and in 2017, he was assassinated in Malaysia under unclear conditions.

Answer: Soviet Union

Since 1956, and during the Cold War, USSR (Soviet Union) began to provide technical support to North Korea assisting the country in nuclear programs. In 1959 both countries signed an agreement of a peaceful use of nuclear energy that included a provision for Soviet help to setup a nuclear research complex.

In 1964 construction of the Soviet-supplied IRT nuclear research reactor begun under the supervision of the Soviet nuclear scientist Vladislav Kotlov. In 2006, North Korea claimed to have successfully tested its first nuclear weapon.

It is worth mentionimg that in the 60s, China assisted North Korea in conducting a uranium mining survey of the entire country, revealing large deposits of uranium ore.

Answer: A small minority has some basic knowledge about the outside world but most of the Koreans do not.

North Koreans are curious about the outside world. Awareness of the outside world is growing but still at a very slow rate. The upper class citizens (elite residents of the capital Pyongyang and who need special permission to stay there) have basic knowledge about history, arts, sports and other cultural habits of other countries and some of them even speak English however the average North Korean citizen is kept in the dark.

After '00s North Koreans begun to smuggle foreign films and tv shows through the Chinese border and tune in to illegal radio broadcasts from the South but restrictions in telecommunications and limitations on the freedom of movement, prohibit the majority of North Koreans to have accurate and vast knowledge about the outside world.