Regarding North Korea, it's likely because the populance is under tight control of a ruthless military dictatorship. During the famines in the early 2000's Germ

Regarding North Korea, it's likely because the populance is under tight control of a ruthless military dictatorship. During the famines in the early 2000's Germany sent a larger part of it's BSE beef reserves (meat from ~400k head of cattle) [0] to North Korea, under the condition to ensure the issuance of the meat to the civil populance. Otherwise it was feared that this meat would just be confiscated by the military. As a result certain German media outlets got unprecedented access to North Koreans going about their daily lives, because German humanitarian workers were allowed to freely travel across the country. I cannot find it right now, but ARTE/Discovery Channel produced a documentary where these workers were followed. There were some remarkable scenes in that documentary, it was like someone travelled back in time into the soviet union at it's lowest point. They also interviewed farmers and they put it in no certain terms that they knew they were living in a planned economy, but couldn't to much about it, since there was a constant threat of violence if they retaliated. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/20/northkorea.famine https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/20/northkorea.fam...