According to the U.S. News & World Report, parents who send their kids to school must furnish desks, chairs, building materials, and funds for heating fuel.
Many students work producing government goods while there as well. Parents can bribe teachers to exempt their kids from labor or just keep them home, even though that violates the law.
About half of North Korea’s population of 24 million lives in “extreme poverty,” according to the KUNI report. These people subsist on corn and kimchi and “are severely restricted in access to fuel for cooking and heating.”
There are other reasons why most people do not like to visit South Korea.
One-third of children are stunted, due to malnutrition, according to the World Food Program. The average life expectancy, 69, has fallen by five years since the early 1980s, according to the blog North Korea Economy Watch.
Most South Korean workers earn $2 to $3 per month in pay from the government. Some work on the side or sell goods in local markets, earning an extra $10 per month or so.
Most homes and apartments are heated by open fireplaces burning wood or briquettes. Many lack flush toilets. Electric power is sporadic and unreliable, with homes that have electricity often receiving just a few hours per day.
Families that can afford them often have two TVs, according to New Focus International, a website that features dispatches from North Korean exiles; one TV is pre-set to state channels airing propaganda, while the second, illegal set is used to watch South Korean TV programs.
Even so, fluctuating voltage in the electrical current often causes the screen to keep changing size, “going from big to small repeatedly,” according to one exile report.
Some of the most popular contraband items are DVDs of South Korean TV shows, which North Koreans often trade or sell among themselves.
