North Korea: 5 Things You Didn’t Know

When President Bush vilified North Korea as part of the “Axis of Evil,” many Westerners needed no further convincing. What little we already thought we knew seemed plenty persuasive; North Korea -- ruled in principle by a dead man and in practice by a character cartoonish enough for The Simpsons, were it not for his incessant desire to have a nuclear button under his finger -- had all the right attributes to qualify as enigmatic and evil.

Add to that the fact that North Korea has the fourth largest standing army in the world, that it is still technically at war with South Korea (a 1953 armistice pact ended outright hostilities, but no formal peace treaty has ever replaced it), and that leader Kim Jong-il's nuclear ambitions continue unabated, especially now that not a single UN inspector remains in the country.

North Korea’s recent launch of a questionable rocket has once again alarmed much of the world, including their tightest allies in Beijing. Thus as diplomatic relations fall back into radioactive decay, we present 5 things you didn't know about North Korea.

1- North Korea is one of the world’s largest fresh fruit producers

The first thing you didn't know about North Korea is that it’s a global leader in producing things that are delicious and nutritious.

Estimates made by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) consistently rank North Korea as the 10th largest producer of fresh fruits like apples, peaches, nectarines, and pears. North Korea also ranks 12th in fresh vegetable production. Yet, this food production wasn't enough to prevent a famine of biblical proportions in the 1990s, which according to The Wall Street Journal may have cost the lives of two million North Koreans. Apparently all that produce is for export only.

2- North Korea has a 99% literacy rate

A literacy rate is defined by what percentage of the population over the age of 15 can read and write. Despite just 11 years of compulsory education and a recent history of catastrophic famine that would otherwise interrupt a child's education, the CIA believes that North Korea's literacy rate is equal to that of the U.S., the UK and dozens of other countries, and far better than over 100 others. Dictatorial leadership masquerading as some form of Marxism does seem to produce high literacy rates, as both the CIA and the United Nations cite Cuba as having the highest or second highest literacy rate in the world.

We have three more things you didn’t know about North Korea coming up… Next Page >>