A state apart

North Korea seems so very alien, so very out of kilter with what passes for normal in the rest of the world, that it is difficult to imagine what life is like for the almost 25m souls who reside there.

Even if you allow for the usual demonisation of countries that do not conform to the norms expected — and imposed — by the world’s superpowers, it seems a strange and dangerously paranoid place. That the country seems so unwelcoming to curious foreigners, so very committed in its isolation and dogma, puts it almost in a category of its own.

That the very occasional portrait of what life in North Korea entails shows a rigid, impoverished society where dissent is not tolerated reminds us of the freedoms we, maybe foolishly, take for granted. They show a degree of conformity that has been forgotten in the rest of the world for centuries.

The latest reports from that hereditary and insane dictatorship cannot but provoke huge feelings of sympathy for the great majority of North Koreans trapped in a nightmare about which they are powerless to do anything.

Reports that dictator Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Song Thaek was eaten alive by 120 dogs after being stripped naked and locked in a cage are shocking. They may or may not be true, but that they are even plausible is frightening.