Great_Antibob:
They might not know the latest internet fads, but some, especially near the Chinese border, do get smuggled South Korean TV shows, which are incredibly popular across Asia right now.
At the very least, many know South Korean lifestyles aren’t as bad as they were led to believe.
But there’s a big difference between that and an ability to get rid of all the indoctrination. For example, some North Korean refugees in South Korea will readily admit they’ve been lied to their entire lives. But when asked about the possibility of war, some will exhibit remnant bits of nationalistic pride and claim North Korean soldiers are individually better than their South Korean or American counterparts.
Belief is a funny thing. It crops up sometimes, even if you think you’ve excised it.
There is that, but there is also a darkness factor, most of North Korea is in darkness, as in no electricity, so it is less likely that most people would even unintentionally learn about the progress seen in the south. I wonder of North Korea is doing this by design.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/12/new-highly-detailed-image-north-koreas-lack-electrical-infrastructure/4201/
Pyongyang has a probable population of more than 3 million people, but you wouldn’t know it looking down on the city from space. Only the faintest of glimmers rise from the metropolis, as if all its residents are huddling in the dark for their Supreme Leader’s surprise birthday party.
The world has known of North Korea’s night-invisibility for a while. On imagery captured by military satellites in the '90s, the country shows up like a gaping hole in the flaming latticework of light that is Japan, South Korea and China. But recent overpasses by NASA’s Suomi NPP spacecraft – the one that provided those marvelous shots of nocturnal America – has revealed the country’s energy bankruptcy in a level of detail never seen before.
It is as dark as Mordor with Pyonyang as the Eye of Sauron.
Wesley_Clark:
I’ve read the spread of $3 radios and $0.15 vcds is playing a big role, supposedly about 20% of the country uses those. I don’t know if the rest can’t afford them, don’t know about them or just don’t want them for fear of punishment.
“Fear is a strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground.”
– Small Gods, Terry Pratchett