16 Surprising Facts About North Korea

We all know something about North Korea, the hermit state. The country often appears in the news - its government boasts of its weapons and from time to time threatens with nuclear weapons. However, what is happening inside the country is not really known: the data is either not available or unreliable. However, here are 16 amazing facts for you!

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Source: businessinsider.com

1. North Korea recently created its own time zone: Pyongyang Standard Time. Since August 15, the country has been living according to Pyongyang time - this is the time used on the Korean Peninsula before Japanese rule.

2. Since Kim Jong-un came to power, escaping the country has become more expensive. It costs $8,000 to get to China, far more than the average North Korean can afford, given a per capita GDP of $1,800.

3. The late Kim Jong Il's annual spending on cognac was 800 times the annual income of the average North Korean. Kim Jong-un's father was reported to have spent $1.2 million on Hennessy Cognac annually. The average annual income in North Korea is between a thousand and two thousand dollars (we used $1,500 in this calculation).

4. North Koreans born after the Korean War are about two inches shorter than South Koreans. The difference in height is explained by the fact that 6 million North Koreans are malnourished, and a third of the children are chronically malnourished.

5. North Korea claims to have 100 percent literacy.

6. There are only 28 approved haircuts in the country. Women can choose from 14 hairstyles: married women are supposed to have short haircuts, and single women can have longer and curly hair. Men are forbidden to grow their hair longer than 5 centimeters, except for older men - they are allowed to wear hair up to 7 centimeters long.

7. The capital of Bill Gates is five times the GDP of North Korea. Gates' net worth is estimated at $79.5 billion. The GDP of the DPRK is about 15.45 billion dollars (there is no official figure).

8. If the capital of North Korea were an American city, it would be the fourth most populous city in the US. The population of Pyongyang is 2.843 million people.

9. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the North Koreans scored against Brazil. But they lost with a score of 2:1.

10. North Korea is about the size of Pennsylvania. The area of Pennsylvania is 119,283 square kilometers, and North Korea is 120,538 kilometers.

11. However, the country only uses less than 20% of the land. It's about the size of New Jersey.

12. The number of North Koreans fit for military service is two and a half times the population of Norway. 6.515 million men and 6.418 million women are fit for military service in the DPRK, while the population of Norway is 5.1 million people.

13. Only 2.83% of roads in the DPRK are paved: out of 25,554 kilometers of roads in North Korea, only 724 kilometers are covered with asphalt.

14. All Korean roads can circle Mercury one and a half times, and paved roads can only cover the distance from New York to Cleveland. The length of the roads of the DPRK is 25,554 kilometers. The circumference of Mercury is 15,329 kilometers.

15. Qatar's GDP per capita is more than 51 times the GDP per capita of the DPRK. In 2014, Qatar's GDP was the highest in the world at $92,400. North Korea's estimated GDP per capita in 2013 was $1,800.

16. In 2014, North Korea — along with Somalia — was named the most corrupt country in the world. 174 countries were rated on a scale from zero (very corrupt) to one hundred, with North Korea scoring eight.