Due to the fact that 90% of North Koreans are too poor to go to the grocery store, many have resorted to eating anything they can find on the ground including scraps, rats, birds and even grass and leaves.
This behavior is so widely spread that the North Korean government has actually put out a cookbook on what types of grasses and leaves are the tastiest, and how eating all of those greens all the time isn’t so bad and might even be healthy. Although admittedly, if you have gotten to the point that you are eating grass, things have probably gotten pretty bad.
The propaganda machine
Imagine you only had one channel on television and one station on the radio and all they had on was the president talking all day long. Between his speeches you could enjoy patriotic country music videos and propagandist history shows.
Not only is that the only thing on, but you aren’t even allowed to turn it off. This is the reality in North Korea. You are legally required to keep the television and radio in your home or business on at all times. If you do not keep your television or radio on in order to at least listen to the propaganda you can be incarcerated, or even worse.
Empty places
The country of North Korea is filled with towns and cities. Unfortunately, not all these towns and cities are populated – at least not all of the time.
In order to trick foreign satellites and spy planes and make empty cities look prosperous and alive, the Hermit Kingdom’s regime will periodically call on the entire population of a town to uproot and move to a different location. These shifts make it seem to observers from above that all is well in the pariah state.
The eternal president
One of the craziest things about North Korea is that they consider their leaders to be divine and therefore their religion is actually their leaders. In fact, the eternal president of the republic is a man named Kim Il Sung, who has been dead for almost 25 years! Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, the son and grandson of the “dear leader” Kim Il Sung are the country’s prophets.
That is why the people in the picture are bowing to these giant statues – they are actually praying to them!
We want you!
Enlisting in the military is one of the only career paths that promises food on the table and a small chance of a decent life for you or your family. Getting in is not so easy, you must have the right connections, and a lot of luck. If the rights strings get pulled, you have a chance to become an officer and make sure that grass is not the main ingredient in the family dinner.
The officers’ class is extremely secretive which is what makes this photo so rare.