Why does north Korea call itself a democratic state?

Answer 1

There are two issues worth mentioning:

1) Lack of "North"
The first thing that you have to realize is that the term "north" that is applied to North Korea is a layman's term to refer to the fact that it is on the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. However, the North Korean government believes itself to be the only legitimate government for all of the Korean Peninsula, so the word "north" is not included, since this would imply that there is a second legitimate government (South Korea) on the Korean Peninsula.

2) Term "Democratic People's Republic"
The term "democratic people's republic" is commonly associated with communism and comes from the idea that the Dictatorship of any given communist state is really made of people who are representatives of the proletariat workers. They are "normal people" who are the forerunners of the civilization and bringing their brothers and sisters up to speed education-wise, behavior-wise, and economically. So this proletariat leadership is "democratic" since it is rule by the "emissaries of the people" (even though these people are never elected). It is a "republic", since the authority is vested in members who have no hereditary right to power (even though in North Korea, the system is actually hereditary). It is a "people's government", since the proletariat leadership represents the will of the people (even though the individual citizens have no say in the leadership). By the magic of redefining words by ideology, the term "democratic people's republic" which includes a number of words that indicate a non-hereditary, human rights-abiding country where people vote for their representatives for set terms, you create a hereditary, human rights-violating country where a nobility is in power for as long as they live.

Answer 2

What is in a name?

Before Germany was re-united, East Germany was called The German Democratic Republic. It wasn't democratic either.

It just sounds better than "The Communist Dictatorship of North Korea".

Answer 3

Because that's the name the rulers decided on.