Well first you have to look at its progenitors.
Soviets, Japan, and China.
Soviets had a pathological respect for East Asian culture, and loved to use propaganda- so you see most of the East Asian revolutionaries being allowed to deify themselves, as it was a tradition they were willing to accept, and it only added to their propaganda techniques.
For an example of this, look at Kyrgyzstan's recent trend of bridal abductions to cement marriages. For people known to dissolve cultures and churches, they happily remoulded them in their satellite regions.
Japanese brought nuclear testing, chemical warfare, and some harsh corporal punishment methods- the same stories of Japan's Unit 731 still go on in North Korea today.
Lastly- China.
The cold hearted and insane barbarity of Chinese cruelty and corporal pun punishment is a standard the North Koreans have modernized in a sense.
Instead of castrating the families of dissidents, they place them in forced labour camps.
They believe in a "seed of evil" that justifies them punishing entire families for one member's crimes.
Lately North Korea suffers foot shortages, so it would seem cannibalism has been on the rise.
Kim Jung Ill himself used to joy ride on a boat and abduct Japanese girls off the beaches and recondition them.
North Korean escapees tell horror stories, but mostly all they care about when out is food. They just love to eat, not much else concerns them.
At home they are for the most part awaiting their own day of the Rope, it doesn't matter so long as they can die together.
They actually do a lot of animation for foreign companies, as well as having produced on their own quality series Squirrel & Hedgehog.
They have sex slaves in uniform- similar to Japan and Nazi Germany's Joy Division; but with uniforms and dignity.
The D.M.Z. as nuked, no one knows by who, but the whole thing is radioactive still, but no one admits it.
Kim Jung ill's children mostly fled, one was even caught in Japanese Disney Land- Kim Jung Un was given position because he;s the only one that was loyal- it's likely he's mentally disabled on some level- not even Autism Spectrum, he looks like full-on brain development impairment.
Lastly, they are home to the International Friendship Museum, quite possibly the finest thrift store on Earth where all products are only for display. They refuse to let any foreigners in for fear of theft of these national treasures.