North Korean citizens usually cannot freely travel around the country, let alone travel abroad. Emigration and immigration are strictly controlled.
According to one Korean American scholar who visited North Korea in the early 1980s, the country has no birth control policies; parents are encouraged to have as many as six children. The state provides tagaso (nurseries) to lessen the burden of childrearing for parents and offers a 77-day paid leave after childbirth.
Foreigners living in Pyongyang are usually able to travel freely within the city, but permission is often required for travel outside Pyongyang. You can't enter or leave North Korea through the border with South Korea without special permission.
North Korea doesn't allow independent tourism. Authorities restrict travel within the country. Authorities only allow tourism in groups organised by North Korean officials or by approved travel agencies. An official guide must always accompany travellers.
Individuals automatically receive South Korean nationality at birth if at least one parent is a South Korean national, whether they are born within the Republic of Korea or overseas.
There are three common ways to count age in South Korea, but the government has changed its civil code to recognize one: starting from zero on a person's date of birth and adding a year at each birthday.
Under the “Korean age” system, babies are considered to be one year old on the day they are born, and every January 1, a year is added to people's ages – regardless of their actual birthdate. For example, a baby born on New Year's Eve becomes two years old the next day.
Can I bring my phone to North Korea and take pictures? You can take pictures, selfies and videos with your phone in North Korea. There are regulations that abide to photography with phones the same as an ordinary camera. Most North Koreans have cell phones now, with cameras that they like to take pictures with!
Freedom of movement
North Korean citizens usually cannot freely travel around the country, let alone travel abroad. Emigration and immigration are strictly controlled.
No foreign music or movies are allowed
North Koreans are not allowed to listen to foreign music or watch foreign movies, as both are considered criminal activities. In 2015, the country's dictator, Kim Jong-un, decreed to destroy all cassette tapes and CDs that contained songs that the state had outlawed.
Such marriages are becoming increasingly common in South Korea. More than 70% of the 33,000 North Koreans who have fled to South Korea are women. There are no official numbers on how many North Koreans have married South Korean men.
Internet access is available in North Korea, but is only permitted with special authorization. It is primarily used for government purposes, and also by foreigners. The country has some broadband infrastructure, including fiber optic links between major institutions.
North Korea - Level 4: Do Not Travel
Exercise increased caution to North Korea due to the critical threat of wrongful detention. All U.S. passports are invalid for travel to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel under the authority of the Secretary of State.
(Sept. 5, 2008) The Constitutional Court of South Korea ruled on July 31, 2008, that a Medical Law provision that bans doctors from telling parents the gender of their unborn babies is unconstitutional.
While North Korean orphans and children cannot be immediately adopted by any foreign agencies, there are opportunities for the needs of sustenance, shelter, and education to be provided in China.
Marriage in North Korea
Engagement is not legally recognized. Marriage is allowed at age 18 (for boys) and 17 (for girls). Unlike in South Korea, there are no legal provisions regulating or banning marriage between persons in cases of consanguinity or other types of familial relations.
If the defectors are caught in China, they are repatriated back to North Korea, where rights groups say they often face harsh interrogations and years of punishment, or even death, in kwalliso prison camps (such as the Pukch'ang camp), or in kyohwaso reeducation camps (such as the Chungsan camp or Chongo-ri camp).
The number of North Koreans fleeing to the South has dramatically decreased from over 1,000 every year for most of the 2000s to around 100 since the COVID-19 breakout in 2020, data from the Unification Ministry shows.
There are no known official statistics of religions in North Korea. Officially, North Korea is an atheist state, although its constitution guarantees free exercise of religion, provided that religious practice does not introduce foreign forces, harm the state, or harm the existing social order.
All non-satellite mobile phones can be brought in: including all conventional Smartphones such as the iPhone VI. All mobile electronic devices will be inspected and logged, but you will be permitted to keep them for the duration of your trip. You will not however be able to use them in North Korea.
In general, you can take photos freely in North Korea. However, there are a few points to keep in mind. – Always ask permission before taking a photo of a person.
iPhones are not legally available in North Korea. However, iPhones are considered much more secure than the phones which are legally available in the country, which consumers believe are often monitored by the totalitarian government of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
1. According to one of the world's most unusual age-calculating systems, South Korean babies become 1 on the day of their birth and then get an additional year tacked on when the calendar hits Jan.
The gestational age is the period of time before birth; it is measured starting with conception. In the majority of the globe, a baby's age is 0 when they are born, and they reach their first birthday at age 1.