Facts about North Korea - It is a terrible place.

North Korea is a terrible country. Here are some awful facts.

• Human rights organizations have collected testimony on 1,193 executions in North Korea through 2009. This is slightly less than the 1,240 people killed by police in the United States annually.

• North Korea has a very high incarceration rate. In fact, only one other country in the world incarcerates more of their own citizens (per capita) than them.

• In North Korea, surveillance of citizens, both physical and electronic, is routine.

• North Koreans appear very patriotic, and you can see their national symbols displayed prominently throughout the country, however it is thought that the government forces people and businesses to display propaganda

• North Korea considers foreign media to be a threat to their national security.

• North Koreans have a major drug problem this is because North Koreans have lost hope and are depressed by fraudulent reality that they are living. They would rather be happy under the influence of drugs.

• Their leaders and politicians routinely make absurd claims about their stature in the world.

• They have threatened to use nuclear weapons, which is a war crime and never under any circumstances justified.

• Their government doesn't allow negative depictions of the government in the media, and takes harsh measures against those who dare to defy the regime.

• Citizens regularly blindly recite archaic patriotic nonsense.

• They torture their own citizens.

• The frequently use extrajudicial killings in place of any kind of internationally recognized system of justice.

• Sometimes they even use weapons of war against their own citizens.

• They lie to their citizens about the state of their economy.

• They are viewed as a threat to world peace by much of the world

• North Korea is a relatively peaceful nation, having not invaded another country since 1953 (although they often threaten to, and on paper are at war with a few)

• Despite being a secretive country, we know these facts because defectors tell us

• Many of their citizens are hungry or malnourished due to resource shortages caused by corrupt leaders stealing the nation's wealth. The North Korean government even suggested that hungry citizens eat wood pulp!

• The government suppresses criticism using elaborate propaganda in attempts to discredit their enemies.

• Despite this, North Korea does have one of the highest literacy rates in the world.