leader Kim Jung Un. That's required endless  cups of coffee and lots of research. Yes, Gary,  

the interns are still mad about you hogging the  white chocolate creamer. [Narrator clears throat.]

During our many hours of perusing  news stories about the DPRK,  

we began to notice something interesting.  Though an article would be about something else,  

it would happen to mention a detail which  provided insight to daily life in North Korea.  

We found these snapshots of  ordinary moments fascinating.  

We wanted to dig a little deeper and try to  figure out how teenage life is in North Korea.

Just like everywhere else, issues  of class and wealth play a role  

in the lives of teens in North Korea--although  the gulf between the haves and have nots  

is much wider than in several other countries.  Aside from having lots of moolah, citizens  

are part of the elite when they have notable  political, government, and military connections.

A large part of being a teenager is  figuring out your sense of style,  

how you like to dress and your identity.  It's not easy to do that when you live in a  

repressive country.You may have seen posters for  allowedNorth Korea hairstyles on the internet.  

While it's not true that North Korea forces  citizens to have a particular hairstyle,  

the government does encourage people  to have state approved hairstyles.

Many teens are exposed to makeup, fashion and  a variety of hairstyles thru foreign movies and  

music. South Korean skin care routines are popular  too. Little makeup and skincare is sold in shops,  

most devotees purchase their goods at the  Jangmadang or local North Korean markets  

that sell everything from food to household  products to clothing. These marketplaces also  

sell illegal products smuggled into the country  such as USB drives containing western movies,  

music and South Korean soap operas,  as well as makeup and foreign clothes.

While there are not any official  appearance rules that we were able to find,  

North Korea places a strong emphasis on  a tidy, clean and appropriate appearance.  

Assuming they have the money to  purchase expensive smuggled goods,  

in private North Korean teens experiment  with a variety of non permanent looks.  

However, publicly women wear minimal makeup  such as lightly tinted lipstick--never red,  

because as one defector explains, wearing red  lipstick is unimaginable in North Korea because  

the color red represents capitalism. It is  unacceptable for males to wear any makeup.

Fashion is definitely a subtle form  of resistance. Due to the widespread  

influence of foreign media and young  citizens willing to push the boundaries,  

in recent years North Korea's unspoken rules  regarding appearance have loosened slightly.  

Citizens now wear brightly colored clothing, some  even dare to wear jeans and ladies fairly short  

skirts. However, the prevailing attitude  depends on where one is in the country.  

Fashion acceptable in Pyongyang may  not be acceptable in a small village.

Wearing too much makeup, skimpy clothing or too  tight clothes may cause citizens to run afoul of  

the Gyuchaldae or fashion police. The Gyuchaldae  patrol pedestrian areas making sure that  

everyone's appearance is 'suitable'. If caught  with an 'inappropriate' appearance the fashion  

police issue punishments. Common punishments  involve public humiliation--offenders are made  

to stand in the middle of a town's square  and endure harsh criticism from officers.  

Also, short stints of hard labor and  fines are also given as punishment.

What's school like for a North Korean teen? In  the DPRK education is entirely controlled by the  

government. Kindergarten, primary and secondary  schooling are free and all citizens are required  

to attend--North Korea is surprisingly progressive  when it comes to the education of women.

After kindergarten, primary school,  known as the “People's Schools,”  

is attended from the ages of 6 to 9. Then from  10 to 16, pupils attend a secondary school  

which may concentrate on a specialty such as  music, art, economics or foreign languages.  

Children of the elite may go to a  secondary school which focuses on  

training them for leadership positions or  to be officers in the Korean People's Army.

North Korea claims that their school  system is top notch. According to UNESCO,  

North Korea's literacy rate for people  15 and older who can read and write  

is 98-100 percent. But then again,  this statistic is self-reported.

Throughout the school years, all information  taught to students is carefully censored.  

Many subjects are taught in a way that  promotes allegiance to Kim Jong un and  

the Kim family. Other commonly taught  propaganda is military nationalism  

and Juche or the North Korean  concept of self-sufficiency.

While school for city dwellers and the elite may  be well funded by North Korean standards, reports  

have leaked out of underfunded rural schools with  not enough resources and poorly trained teachers.

In recent years, students have been forced  to cover school costs such as workbooks  

or helping to heat their school in the winter.  Impoverished families have a hard time coming  

up with money to pay school fees and teens  sometimes drop out. While more middle class  

families are able to hire tutors for their  children as an alternative to school--which  

can actually be cheaper than school fees, poor  kids are left in the lurch. The dropouts take  

menial jobs to survive. The government seems  to turn a blind eye to dropouts, especially  

since their work often provides supplemental  money and food to keep poor households going.

After finishing secondary school at age  17, citizens must serve in the military.  

Men are conscripted into the military  for 10 years and women for 6 years,  

until age 23. Conscripts can be drafted into elite  special forces depending on their social class,  

or if they have outstanding athletic abilities.

There are exemptions to joining the military  though. Teenagers with good grades from elite  

families may be invited to sit for entry  exams at one of North Korea's universities.  

If they are accepted, they may delay,  shorten or even bypass military service.  

Certain skilled workers and technicians may  also bypass or shorten military service.

Many North Korean teens don't have a lot of free  time. When they aren't at school or studying,  

many teens work, helping their families to  make ends meet. The types of jobs available  

to teens are mainly informal work  such as selling charcoal door to door,  

selling smuggled goods in the marketplace or  tutoring and childcare for younger children.

During their free time, if teens are lucky  enough to live in an area that has a cinema  

and they can afford it, you might find them  at the movies. However North Korea cinemas  

only have 1 or 2 screens and often have  the same few movies showing for months.  

Some of the larger cities have a bowling alley,  arcade or mini golf, but it's quite expensive  

and the average middle class teen may visit such  places infrequently. The same for roller rinks  

and ice skating arenas, but they're expensive too  and since so few of them exist, they stay crowded.

Teens who are donju or part of the 1% may receive  an allowance. That may not sound like a big deal,  

but in a country where in 2018  the official salary is roughly $10  

USD a month, it is. Having an allowance makes for  a great social life. Donju teens most likely live  

in the capital of Pyongyang. They hang out  at 24 hour coffee shops and drink lattes,  

which at $4 USD a drink, is incredibly out  of the reach of most North Korean citizens.  

They also frequently visit water theme parks, ski,  

hang out in pool bars and have gym memberships.  They may eat out both at fast food restaurants  

and fine dining where they eat expensive cuts of  steak, an unimaginable luxury for most citizens.

Like everywhere else, teens hang out with  their friends--in the park or at home.  

They may play video games on older consoles  that they've bought on the black market.  

Newer game systems that require online  access aren't suitable as home internet  

access in North Korea is virtually non existent.  Friends also get together and watch foreign,  

often western movies on DVD or flash  drives also purchased from smugglers.

It's extremely common for North Koreans to  pass around flash drives containing videos,  

music and news. In fact, as a way to educate  North Korea about the world, various activist  

and religious organizations smuggle USB  sticks with subversive media into the country.

North Korean teens do have to be careful who they  trust and share media with. In the spring of 2018,  

a group of teens in the Ryanggang Province were  arrested and stood public trial. Their crime?  

Dancing and distributing K-pop music. Six teens  ages 16 and 17 were convicted. Four of them were  

found guilty of "anti-national" conspiracy and  received a year of labor. The sentence for the  

other two teens is unknown, however all were sent  to an offenders' institution after the trial.

Ironically, about 2 weeks later several K-pop  bands visited Pyongyang to perform for Kim Jon  

Un and North Korean government officials.  Ultimately, this case is a sad, yet perfect  

illustration of how North Korea is run. Kim  Jon Un and government officials at the top  

can do whatever they like, but they will punish  ordinary citizens if they try to do the same.

The repressive nature of North Korean society  causes anger, depression and disillusionment  

among its people. Many citizens turn to  drugs and alcohol to mitigate the pain.  

In 2016, an institute interviewed  defectors about life in North Korea.  

Many of the defectors said that around  30% of North Koreans, including teens,  

are addicted to drugs. While it's hard to gage  how accurate this claim is, in the winter of  

2019 North Korea began making a concerted  effort to crack down on teenage drug abuse,  

especially use of opium, which is readily  available. There have been a few incidents  

where a roving band of high teens caused a  disturbance or brawled in the street with police.

North Korea's drug issues are a problem of their  own making. For many years the production of  

opium was a state-run industry where North Korea  sold drugs on the international black market as  

a way to get around sanctions. Middle school  students were mobilized to harvest poppies  

and produce opium powder on poppy farms. It was  only evitable that citizens would begin to try  

the product. In 2013 North Korea implemented  a death penalty for illicit drug manufacture.  

In recent years they have also created harsh  laws targeting drug runners who sell to minors.

Dating in North Korea is somewhat taboo. Society,  especially older people frown upon it. Young women  

are expected to remain chaste, marry young and  then have lots of children for the sake of the  

great nation. There is no sex education taught  in school. Porn is illegal and if caught with it,  

a citizen will be sent to a reeducation  camp. College campuses have strict rules  

against dating. Arranged marriages are still  common in North Korea, but increasingly due  

to the influence of foreign movies, it's  becoming more common to marry for love.

Teens get around society's disapproval by having  group dates and assignations. When couples go  

out alone, there's no public display of affection.  Even just holding hands is not acceptable. However  

some parents turn a blind eye to their teens  dating as long as they don't shame the family.

Correspondence passed between sweethearts  to set up dates can be tricky, especially  

if the parents do not approve. The majority  of North Koreans don't have telephones.  

Although, increasingly cell phones,  especially smartphones are popular.  

It;s estimated that about 25% or 6 million  people in North Korea have a cell phone.

Locally made smartphones are  popular with teens of the Donju,  

but as they are rumored to cost upwards of  $400 USD, rarely do ordinary citizens own them.  

They can't be used to call overseas or connect  to the internet. Instead they connect to the  

country's internal, state-run intranet on 3G.  Despite the intranet, for apps, North Korean  

smartphone users have to visit a physical store  where they can download apps approved by the  

North Korean government. Aso it's rumored that  the government accesses them to spy on people.

Recently business has begun to boom  for smugglers of Chinese-made phones.  

Using smuggled phones, North Koreans  can not only call locally but stay in  

contact with relatives who have defected  to South Korea. Apps such as WeChat are  

used to bypass having calls monitored  by the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

More and more as the youth of the DKRP become  aware of the outside world, they're changing North  

Korean society. There's only so long that Kim Jong  UN is going to be able to rule with an iron fist.

Now, you should totally  keep the watch party going! 

How do North Korean soldiers stack up against  US soldiers? Check out our comparison here:

How has life changed for  teenagers over the last century?