You would expect that a country like North Korea would shy away from international, western events like the Olympics. This is not the case, however: Since 1964, North Korea has participated in almost all of the Summer Olympic Games.
North Korean athletes have won no less than 56 medals, which is very impressive for such a poor country. North Korea has won medals for weightlifting, wrestling, judo, gymnastics and volleyball, among other things.
This probably isn’t so shocking after reading all about North Korea’s ideology but the country was for Trump during the election. They even had a propaganda website stating that Trump is ”a prescient presidential candidate” and who Americans should vote for.
I guess North Korea is excited for Trump’s inauguration in January. We will have to see how his presidency affects the rift between North and South Korea!
Bill Gates has a net worth of about $78.2 billion as of 2016, which is four and a half times larger than North Korea’s. According to the reports, North Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to be about $17.4 billion, while United States is $16.77 trillion.
It is no wonder there are so many poor people in North Korea!
This probably won’t shock you but last year, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index, North Korea is tied as the most corrupt country in the world! They were tied with Somalia with a score of 8. The rating is between 0 (highly corrupt) and 100 (very clean).
Looking at the results as a whole, though, show that 68% of all the countries in the world have a serious corruption problem. By the way, there is no perfect corrupt-free country.
Looking at these pictures, you might think that North Korea is a big country but in truth, it is about the size of Pennsylvania. North Korea’s area is about 120,538 square kilometers, which is only slightly bigger than the U.S. state. Unlike PA, though, only about 19.5% is able to be used to grow crops.
The country’s small size makes it easier to control their citizens, though!