"Death penalty" is not exactly the correct usage of the word here - in North Korea, you will just get sentenced and executed on the street - Judge Dredd style (if you haven't seen the 2012 remake of this movie, better get it ASAP or watch it on Netflix, it's totally worth it). It is the same in all dictatorships around the world - the "mighty" leader must subjugate his people through both force and indoctrination in order to be able to stay in power.
TV is not completely forbidden in North Korea, but watching South Korean shows is a big no-no - the mere act of switching to such a TV channel is a punishable offense. The last time a man was executed for this crime recent - in October 2014.
Cars not illegal, and you will not get killed (yet) for driving one - but given the power and productivity of their economy, it simply means that cars are unobtainable (Unobtanium? As in Captain America?) for over 99% of the citizens.
According to the Supreme Council of North Korea, all music which does not praise the Glorious Leader is a degenerate art form and must be forbidden and punished under any circumstance. This implies that there is no Taylor Swift for the North Koreans.
Indeed, international phone calls are so expensive in the North, that you literally can't buy them with money - you pay for them with life itself. In 2007, a North Korean factory boss got executed for making one such abominable phone call.
North Korea has just 1,024 IP addresses for its own use - this is less than what a densely populated street in Chicago has. Even if you were lucky to get Internet access, you must not under any circumstance access websites that are not hosted by the government of North Korea.
Citizens of North Korea are not allowed to own houses, apartments or office space - all real estate must only be owned by the State Government of North Korea. This is a communist concept called "State Housing," and it is used so that the government protects the citizens from rent cost hikes.
Apple and Samsung, two of the largest phones manufacturers in the world, have not started selling their goods in North Korea. This means you cannot buy their phones over there - unless your name is Kim Jonh-Un - he has been spotted wielding an iPhone 7 Plus.
Just like housing, all medical care and hospital buildings are funded by the state. The North Korean government claims to offer free healthcare to all citizens, but hospitals have been reported to be understaffed and short of medicine.
Just like music has been declared degenerate, the Supreme Council of North Korea also claims that jeans are a Western innovation and are thus blasphemous to wear in public. They are explicitly forbidden to be sold in stores - not that they have many stores over there.
This is one of those cases where you could agree with the North Koreans, albeit for the wrong reasons. The problem is that their leader is allergic to cigarettes, so he had them banned - good for the health of the citizens, bad because of why he did it.
Sanitary pads are one of women's best friends - especially all women that are under 55. Since North Korean women are not allowed these, they just buy plain normal fabric and use that during their period. Napkins are too expensive to buy in-shop.
Even though North Korea doesn't have enough food to feed its people, it seems like they want to have an even higher population - probably because that would yield them an even larger army of conscripts. That's why condoms are illegal over there.
Any person above the age of 5 which has been caught speaking ill of the leader or the government of North Korea, will be punished severely. In some cases, people have even been executed for speaking against Kim - including high-ranking military officers.
This one got me the most - Starbucks is completely forbidden in the People's Republic of North Korea - no wonder they have no free media over there - where would writers and journalists go to write their best selling deeds?
If you've read this article and thought "hmmm, I gotta visit North Korea bro!" then I have to advise you, bro, that you probably shouldn't. Too many of our guys have been jailed or plain murdered over there, and the risk is just not worth it.
