North Korea is known to the broader international community as being a Hermit Kingdom. A 2014 UN inquiry into human rights in North Korea has stated, "the gravity, scale and nature of [their human rights violations] reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world." The ultimate source of these allegations derives from their highly authoritarian government, currently under under the leadership of Kim Jong-un.

North Korea is said to become a democracy if the Democracy Index ranks them as 6.00 or above for some year. However, at the moment, they are ranked at 1.08, the lowest of any nation in the world.

January 1st of the year for which North Korea was ranked 6.00 or above will be the year of resolution. This question resolves ambiguously if the Democracy Index radically overhauls their methodology for ranking nations such that a rating of 6.00 no longer carries the same meaning as it did at the time when this question opened. It resolves > in the case where the Democracy Index does not rate North Korea at 6.00 or above before 2200.