[taligent]

Sorry I should have clarified. I meant in terms of the basics: food, shelter, water etc.

My point was that North Korea is borderline third world on par with other countries in the region.

[nandemo]

Your comparison is still off. North Koreans will risk their lives to escape to rural China. In China and Philippines there might be poor sanitation and malnutrition but you won't find a lot of people actually starving to death.

[tomjen3]

North korea is not borderline third world, they are much, much worse - indeed they can't even feed their own army anymore.