The thing with North Korea is that so many people know so little about that country, basically anyone can say something outlandish and if it seems even a little bit remotely plausible, everyone kinds of nods their head and say "what a fucked up country."

And of course the media doesn't do anything to help correct this. They aren't above publishing gossips and rumors and in fact love the weird or bizarre North Korea stories - they love anything that can be condensed into clickbait.

For all the flak that Facebook gets nowadays, for fake news, echo chambers, perverse dopamine driven feedback mechanisms, and outright garbage, North Korea stories on Reddit are one indicator that Reddit shared many of the same problems.

North Korea is a highly undeveloped country especially compared to all its neighbors and it does have a highly dysfunctional regime in absolute control of its government. But it is a real country with real people living inside it and the geopolitical problems it creates with its neighbors are real and need to be resolved in a real way.

Instead, it has become reduced to a meme, for shitposters to blab any sort of nonsense and feel superior when it gets upvoted - a dopamine driven feedback mechanism indeed.