North Korea is the most economically restricted country in the world, earning itself the nickname, Hermit Kingdom. It is a country that is simultaneously feared for its nuclear power and ridiculed for the empty and outlandish verbal threats it spews out every day against the United States and South Korea. However, North Korea also draws sympathy from nearly every human rights organization due to its horrific treatment of its own people. Violent prison camps are strategically scattered across the land to scare citizens into conforming to the regime’s laws, and three generations of a family may simply vanish if a prior “crime” committed by a family member is unearthed by the state’s secret police (such as a great-grandfather having owned land in Japan after the Korean War).

Although there are many things that we don’t know about North Korea (for example, the exact age of its supreme leader, Kim Jong Un), North Korean refugees and undercover reporting by brazen news organizations have managed to give the world a surprisingly full picture of what life is like in 21st century North Korea. Here is a list of things that you may not have known about the Hermit Kingdom.

1. Life is still incredibly restricted there, despite recent reforms.

In the last few years, experts and media organizations have reported that many North Koreans now walk around with cell phones and wear popular Western clothes, and police do not appear to be cracking down too hard on private markets (a crime that just a decade ago would have resulted in a prison sentence for the seller and buyer). Therefore, many have drawn the conclusion that the North Korean regime is finally beginning to loosen its grip on its people.

This may be true to an extent, but it isn't done out of the goodness of Kim Jong Un's heart. Kim's regime cannot risk a revolt by the North Korean people; North Koreans have been listening to radio stations from the South for decades (a crime punishable by death in North Korea), and are slowly realizing that their country is lagging far behind their neighbors, which is a very dangerous situation for an oppressive regime to find itself in. So Kim is content to allow his people to start enjoying some minor luxuries like cell phones (internet-less, of course) and wearing Western pants; however, do not expect Kim to allow such luxuries as freedom of speech, freedom of the press or unrestricted travel around the country so long as his regime is in power.

2. North Korea won't nuke the United States or South Korea.

A nuclear attack against either South Korea or the United States would be regime suicide, to say the least. North Korea may talk a big game on its propaganda-run TV stations, fire off rockets into the ocean, test nukes on an irregular basis and attack passing vessels that stray too close to the border, but it knows that it could never pull off a nuclear war against South Korea or the United States. That kind of war would instigate an immediate collapse of its economy, followed by relentless hostilities from the more technologically advanced and militarily capable armies of its two enemy countries.

Yes, North Korea has one of the biggest armies in the world, but most of them are trained with antiquated weapons, and often have little food to eat (the soldiers you see parading around the capital city in massive celebrations are often given special treatment). That being said, every provocation by North Korea is treated with the upmost serious by the major global powers, so if North Korea actually does try something as insane as nuking the U.S. or South Korea, it wouldn't get away with it. As such, North Korea will continue to provoke its enemies and shine the spotlight on itself to give itself attention.

3. Kim Jong Un is not the only man in charge of North Korea.

Although he gets all the glory in the news, Kim Jong Un rules North Korea in conjunction with a mysterious, elite group of generals and advisors. Together Kim and the elites form policy and dictate the lives of every person in North Korea. These elites live the most comfortable lives of any person in the country, an existence that can be compared to an average middle class household in the United States.

Fun fact: Kim Jong Un technically still rules behind his grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, the founder of North Korea. Kim Il-Sung, who has been dead since 1994, was proclaimed Eternal Leader upon his death.

4. Only the privileged few are allowed to live in the capital city.

Pyongyang is a city run with aesthetic appeal in mind. Any senile or disabled people are encouraged to stay indoors, and no one whom the state deems criminal or unworthy may come anywhere near Pyongyang. If you are fortunate enough to live in Pyongyang, though, you still run the risk of being kicked out or sent to prison if the state discovers anything about you it doesn't like. If you are a university student, you may have access to a computer with Internet; however, don't expect to see much of anything except propaganda. You'll also have to get used to constant power outages in the middle of the day, unless the state allocates the entire country's electricity supply to keep the lights on for a few days during a big event.

Pyongyang may look attractive on the outside, but it is a dysfunctional façade disguised to charm the outside world (think for a moment if you have ever seen any official pictures of North Korea taken outside of Pyongyang - it is the only part of the country North Korean officials are eager to show off). In fact, the current economy in North Korea is so bad that the majority of Pyongyang's citizens cannot even afford to visit many of the shops around the city, instead relying on rations from the government.

5. A North Korean prison camp is the worst place on Earth.

A very, very select few North Koreans have escaped a prison camp and lived to tell the tale. Their reports are unnerving: people live in rags, are given little to no food (and thus must live off of rats, worms and other animals they find in the area), are often tortured, must attend vicious self-criticism sessions and are forced to bear witness to routine public executions. Anyone caught escaping (if they make it past the electrical fences) are shot on the spot. There are even different types of camps: those where people are subjected to hard labor for a few years before being released, and those where people are literally sent to be worked to death, with no hope of ever leaving.

The North Korean government continues to deny the existence of these camps, but satellite data and rare eyewitness accounts attest to the fact that these camps are alive and well, and are the place where thousands of North Koreans continue to live to this day. Until these camps are abolished, one cannot seriously claim that North Korea is becoming a more modernized and free country, no matter how many people are spotted wearing Mickey Mouse shirts on the street.

6. North Korean's may pride themselves on their free healthcare, but it often does more harm than good.

Malnutrition runs rampant in the countryside. Tattoos are removed with knives and without the use of an anesthetic. Patients who are lucky enough to be given anesthetic, however, sometimes aren’t given enough and wake up in the middle of an operation, at which point the doctors just try to finish the operation as quickly as possible. North Korea prides itself on its free healthcare, yet primitive instruments and severely underfunded hospitals make for nightmarish scenarios. In one of many documentaries to be found on North Korea, a Nepalese doctor was filmed visiting North Korea and, in an operation that takes only five minutes, treated hundreds of North Koreans suffering from eye problems that the country’s doctors weren't equipped to deal with. Simply put, it’s easiest to just not get sick in North Korea.

7. One of the world's tallest people lives in North Korea.

Ri Myung-hun is just over 7 feet 8 inches tall, lives in Pyongyang and played for years on the North Korean national basketball team. He tried to play in the NBA at one point, but due to the tensions between North Korea and the United States the idea fell through. He is still apparently somewhat active on the basketball scene though, as he made a surprise appearance in Vice News's documentary on basketball in North Korea in 2014.

8. An American has been living in North Korea since 1962.

James Joseph Dresnok was serving in the U.S. Army on the border of North and South Korea when he walked across the mine-littered border into the North, deserting his post and his country. He had lived a rough existence back in the U.S. and South Korea and, in his words, was simply "fed up" and wanted to start his life again somewhere else (it is true that North Korea had a stronger economy than its southern neighbor until the 1970s). Interestingly, Dresnok was not alone in his desertion; three other American soldiers crossed the border that same year in what was a major embarrassment for the U.S. Army and a sweet victory for the communist North.

The four men essentially became trophies for North Korea, frequently shown off on the covers of North Korean magazines and used as tools in the country's propaganda machine (Dresnok's voice was even blasted across the border through loudspeakers, calling for American soldiers to come join him). A documentary on Dresnok was filmed in 2006, titled "Crossing the Line," showing him leading a comfortable life in Pyongyang with "no regrets" (although he and the other three defectors attempted to flee the country in 1966 via the Soviet embassy). Since his defection, two of the other Americans have died in North Korea of natural causes, while the third managed to escape in 2004.

As of the summer of 2016, James Joseph Dresnok continues to live in North Korea.