What are the two problems in North Korea?

Answer 1

Two problems that it faces are famine/poverty and international pressure. Like ANY second-class country, the main wealth is unevenly distributed where the capital is extremely rich and the countryside is very poor. First off, much of this has been the key to attacking North Korea, but if you take a look at other nations, the same can be said for them. In many countries, living outside of the capital typically consists of farmers. However the difference in North Korea is how farming is approached. In a Capitalist nation, you keep what you farm and you can essentially sell it. If you can't sell it well at least you get to keep it. However in North Korea, the farms aren't really as you'd expect them.First off, farmland is government owned and worked by the people. In this system each farmland is to be managed by a group of 5 families. These 5 families work together to reach certain goals. Note that these 5 families aren't only for farming. They also live in the same building and the family learns together. It's not uncommon for North Koreans to take up work-study, that is studying while also maintaining a job. In North Korea, children and adults will work in the farms alike while in the afternoon they might study. Also the benefit of collectivized farms is that farmers will typically need not to worry about supplies and such. In addition to that, farmers have a greater influence in politics. Since they feed the whole nation, North Koreans favor the interests of farmers primarily. Remember, despite being Communist, North Korea maintains an active Democracy though the leaders are actually appointed on their successes rather than by the people. Since supplies for farming are scarce, most people outside of Pyongyang are actually not farmers. Instead a lot of those guys are pseudo-farmers in that they don't receive adequate support for their farmlands. This has caused famine in return. Typically North Korea will turn their backs on failing farmers while assisting successful farmers who output plenty of food. To public dismay, this area which is on the North East of Korea is not monitored as a totalitarian state. Instead, this area consists of terribly built houses. A lot of these houses were built before the Korean War and were badly built. Over the years many of these homes have been repaired and such but the repairs are so horrible that they hardly provide shelter. In Pyongyang, the life is very different. Most of the jobs there are white-color and typical of any city. You have restaurants, factories, stores, hotels, basically all the perks of a regular life in any other city of any other country. The main difference though, is curfew imposed. Basically each group of individuals specified by jobs will hear different curfews. At 4 am, street sweepers wake up in order to keep the whole streets looking good. At 5 am the rest of the general population wakes up. However at 5 am, other employees are also at their post, like the traffic ladies. By 6 am the children are on their way to school and by 7 am the day has officially started. The city I believe(not completely sure) is only allowed to be inhabited by party members. In addition to that, people aren't necessarily brainwashed as many people will say. Instead, North Koreans hate Americans because of the gruesome murders done on civilians, which of course is a fact of war. Most North Koreans do recognize the rampant property in their nation and understand that it is because of lack of resources. In past times, North Korea was semi-prosperous in that they had attained a reasonable level of wealth under the CCCP(Soviet Union in English) which provided all farming resources. Under this partnership, the Soviets would drill in their homeland for very needed oil. In North Korea, farming was the essential job sector. Usually the CCCP would give North Korea farming supplies and oil in exchange for foods. Because of that system, the North Koreans faced no trouble when it came to shortages. It wasn't till in 1986 that North Korea would suffer a damaging blow. The CCCP began passing several economic reforms which lead to slight economic freedom. In turn this caused massive unemployment which led to resources being cutoff and in subsequent years, several Russian-owned countries began to drift away. North Korea who in turn was maintained by China(who was barely making it alive)and Russia so it's fate wasn't like other countries such as Hungary who became independent when the CCCP stopped funding for control of Communist interests in other countries. All the European countries were finally freed while China still maintained it's Communist economy alive and was able to provide enough support for North Korea. In North Korea there was a huge famine during the 90s, as the CCCP had died and was no longer providing support to them which lead to large shortcomings. It was predicted that this destabilization would have lead to economic reforms by the people who were tired of having lived under misery. This in turn was what lead to a new revolution in North Korea, sponsored by China who helped set up a system of brand new propaganda and instead began intensifying efforts to be proud of North Korea. This is the period when North Korea became most famous of being extremely controlling. International sanctions have also plagued North Korea heavily. With the fall of the CCCP( a top nation in the world and prime supporter of North Korea), the country became heavily weakened. As a result they had to impose strict policies to keep power but at the same time raised awareness. As a result, many sanctions have been placed as a means to cut such corruption but have ultimately failed. Also you can learn more about North Korea via Crossing the Lines documentary of James Drosnek who defected to North Korea about 40 years ago and still lives there. He has given an interview for the movie.