We were in North Korea on Nov. 9, 2016, with no access to the news, and our guides — surprisingly — informed us about the election of Donald Trump. We met the architect who designed the new Pyongyang airport (which was a surprise, as some media reports said he had been killed because Kim Jong Un didn’t like the design), and we discovered that he spoke perfect Italian, having studied in Rome for five years.

"Wow we thought that the people were starving and uneducated, and at risk of execution by the Kims for any minor inconvenience. Turns out that many of them are educated, and that they are aware of major global events!! [Could it be that the news.... lied??]"