Korea / 조선

I lived there for several months while doing research.

The usual line in response to that is "obviously everything you saw was faked!". I could almost understand that line of reasoning if I were a famous diplomat, but I was a no-name grad student. I seriously doubt I was of such interest to the government that they spent that much effort faking multiple towns, villages, and the entire university I was based out of for months.

I did not see "dead bodies discarded on the side of the road". Yes, the Kim family is very well regarded considering everything they have done for the people. There's far more hero worship of other countries' leaders. Look at how much the British love their monarchy, people were on their knees crying at the recent funeral. The US literally carved busts of their founders INTO A MOUNTAIN. DPRK has extensive mining operations, it is a major industry, but salt is not one of their major mined resources, so you are definitely making that one up.

That's not to say that there aren't difficulties to life there, but much like Cuba the vast majority of economic issues that plague the people are the direct result of US-led sanctions. If the US was less dedicated to starving anyone who dared to oppose them, things would look much different.

Please, we are hearing what North Korea is like from people who escaped it as though a prison.

Defectors famously lie. EIther you make patently absurd claims about the DPRK whenever called upon, or you get ostricized/blacklisted. There's a reason some defectors realise their mistake and try to get back home. Do you honestly think that Kim personally executed musicians, or that people push trains to work every day (instead of...walking?).