Ok, first of all : I did not make the claim that everyone outside of Pyongyang is an illiterate farmer, you are transforming what I wrote. I said that it could not be 99,9% but maybe 75%. You are just immediately assuming the worst about my intentions because you disagree with me.
Second : about that method of calculation I checked and was, indeed, wrong. Functionnal litteracy is not calculated that way and this number of 99,9% could be close to real. So for that point : my bad and apologies.
But about the rest, I am not puting the blame on North Korean people by applying western chauvinism, I put the blame on the Kim family and their way to govern. You say we cannot trust HRW, but we cannot trust this UN report made by interrogating hundreds of people who fled NK either ? Are they all liars and agents of disinformation ? There are tons of proofs of the bad treatment of NK population and the only counter-narratives defensors of NK can offer are always produced by NK, which is as biased as if it was a capitalist propaganda. I agree that bombing, sanctions and threats are making everything worse, but it explains and does not excuses. It is not a reason to repaint a country like that as ideal just because of the situation in the west.
Ok, so western press exagerates or tell straight up lies on details and defectors could not be trusted everytime, but they tell coherent stories. Besides, there is a difference between wanting to be buried in your homeland and wanting to return live there. The situation might be not as bleak as commonly told in the West and I will check some of the links you provided when I’ll have time, but I still think we have enough proofs to see that NK is not a great country to live and that its government is at fault. I am not an expert on this, but I have a simple question. You wrote :
So why is it so difficult for foreign journalists to comme to NK ? If NK’s situation is as good as you suggest, why not showing it ? Just for the sake of shuting the mouth of western criticism ? Why the few ones who could go there are restricted to Pyongyang ? What could possibly justify to hide the truth about the country if this truth is actually good, or even not as bad as told ? You say foreign exchanges are possibles with Russia, China or Cuba, three country that share views, to put it like that, with NK about the handling of press and information. I do not think this is reliable. In absence of more trustworthy sources, I consider that the coherent reports told by people who actually went there and were of different horizons (defectors, some journalists of different countries) could be at least partially trusted. It would be extremly unlikely that NK turns out to be a socialist paradise that was hidden from us. I do not know if you consider Reporters Without Borders as another capitalist spawn because it has its headquarters in a western country (France), but its survey of press freedom in NK is explicit. So again, why not showing to us westerners how much we are wrong ?