Abbey had a rare experience in North Korea recently.

The following goes some more details.

I had traveled to North Korea a few weeks ago and these are something I found quite interesting with what you have mentioned today. 

1. The problem of living standard: To North Koreans, they have three free measures which are free education, free housing and free medical treatment. Also, as most of their food or daily necessities, even cigarettes, are distributed by the government. Therefore, they do not need much money to buy other goods. At the same time, they also have smartphones, computer, projectors for lessons teaching, and also leisure activities. But their average monthly income is quite low. The tour guide told us that their average monthly income is around USD$130. If we use personal income to conclude the living standards of North Koreans, will it be inaccurate since their economic system is quite different？

2. The backward development of North Korea: Indeed, there are lots of skyscrapers and LEDs in Pyongyang which is very modern. The students there had travelled to Hong Kong and France for exchange and they have very good English accents. On the whole, Pyongyang is like a second tier city in China. However, the situation is only limited to Pyongyang. We had been to Panmunjom, and through the way to Panmunjom, we had passed many countrysides. All of them are old villages with a large number of agricultural lands. The roads are broken. And there is really a huge difference between Pyongyang and other cities in North Korea. However, the professors from the university there said that their country is going to hugely develop economy as they already have political stability and military defense. But do you think their economic development will become very rapid in the next 5 years?

3. Female workforce: When I traveled to North Korea, many of the labour there are females. Restaurants employ mainly waitresses, the tour guide is female, and shopkeepers are also females. This is quite different from South Korea as you mentioned before in the lecture. Why is the reason behind this kind of difference?  

Another thing I found quite interesting is that, North Koreans prefer we call their country as DPRK. If we call their country as North Korea, they will be very serious. But they call South Korea as South Korea! However, they do not avoid talking about South Korea and also believe that the two countries will be reunited in the future.