I have actually been in North Korea. It was in the late 1980s or maybe 1990, and I was in my teens. It's very poor country! Everything new looked like it was modelled on the USSR although the quality seemed worse. However, they had really nice public facilities like a swimming pool complex, amusement park, adventure playgrounds and some good museums, both in the capital and in another city that my brother and I went to. There were colourful murals and mosaics on the walls and traditional costumes were common.

All the people we spoke to seemed really sweet, honest and friendly. We spent a great day on the beach there - that was just like in any other country. However we were with a guide all the time. There were almost no shops, anywhere. We were taller than absolutely everyone in the whole country!

I didn't know anything about the country before arriving, other than my that my father warned my brother and I not to say anything negative about Kim-Il-Sen (president) because it would be offensive to the North Koreans and might cause trouble for him. Kim Il Sen was like a god there, but my brother and I had never even heard of him. It seemed silly to us and we joked about it quite a lot.

But the adoration of the people for Kim Il Sen felt very genuine. He is a liberation hero to them. It seemed like the whole country had a one united purpose; restoring national pride after Japanese occupation for decades, and rebuilding the country which was flattened by the USA in the Korean war. It felt a bit like the whole country was in a big project together.

There was so much pride in their country - despite it being poor - which they knew. The thing they were proud about was how fast they rebuild the country from total destruction. Japan as a colonial power treated Korea terribly... and just when they were beginning to recover from that; the whole country is bombed to pieces by the USA. Who can blame them for being a bit paranoid?

I came away thinking the country was poor, a bit strange but that the people were very proud, but nice. I don't think the average person there felt very oppressed - at least not when I was there. But of course, I didn't ask.. and there might be plenty of people who felt that way, that i never saw.

But from media reports its clear that they have quite gruesome prisons; a bit like "gulags". Probably the state meddles far too much in peoples life, but that's true for lots of countries.

The biggest problem they have now must surely be that they have food shortages and no medicines or oil/electicity. Anyone who really cared about North Koreans should try to help with that.

The Koreans should be left to sort out their differences without any meddling by any other country. I neither support North Korea, nor would I wish it to be overthrown. How the Koreans live in their own country is not my problem.

On the flight back to Japan my dad said that North Korea owed his company millions; it just took delivery of some goods a few years earlier, and never paid a penny. The trip had been about trying to secure payment in return for spare parts that they needed.

Plus, I agree with Ramil: Asians LIKE to be in a collective and follow a leader who they worship. It's part of their culture...Happens in Japan too, in businesses and with the emperor before that. And in China etc.