NKoreans say they are in bad shape. But not as bad of shape as the Iraqis are in

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,,2161266,00.html

New paint and MP3 players: Pyongyang's nuclear dividend


US says Kim Jong-Il has agreed to dismantle nuclear facilities by end of year as secrecy gives way to beginnings of openness

In pictures: inside North Korea

Jonathan Watts in Panmunjom
Monday September 3, 2007
The Guardian

Tank traps, landmines and checkpoint barriers flank the North Korean road to Panmunjom, the last frontier of the cold war.
For more than half a century, this small village in the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula has been frozen in suspended conflict. Its barracks and huts have become living museums, its surroundings so heavily guarded for so long that the environment is more pristine than most nature reserves.

Yesterday, hopes rose that even the huge conventional forces on either side of the border might one day become historic relics as the US and North Korea moved closer to their most significant military agreement since the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. snip

They are small gains from a very low base. Average living standards are still wretched compared to neighbouring South Korea, Japan and China. Aid workers say malnutrition remains a concern in the countryside, particularly the north-east. Even in Pyongyang's diplomatic area, hot water is available for only a few hours a day, and power cuts occur on a daily basis. But residents draw comparison with the chaos in Iraq to argue that they would be far worse off without the bomb.

"The great nuclear countries of the world, they don't touch our country any more and they cannot be any threat to the DPRK because we have a nuclear bomb," said Li Gyong-il, a tour guide aboard the USS Pueblo, a captured American warship. "What happened in Iraq, US troops just occupied Iraq and destroyed a lot of buildings and killed a lot of Iraqi people."