About 5 (?) years ago, a western filmmaker was finally allowed into North Korea.
Strangely, he was allowed to film and disseminate footage of the stuff we don't normally see (NOT like the "model house"). I didn't see the film, but I read a long review of it at the time ... sounded horribly depressing, just as you'd imagine.
I'll try to find something more about it and post here.
OK, I did some searching, and I think this is the one I was referring to (I can't remember the title, but the description sounds similar):
"What emerges is a depressing picture that reinforces commonly held ideas of North Korea as a bleak, dirt-poor, Orwellian state."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001219943
One of the creepy things I remember reading was that citizens are awakened every morning by loudspeakers in the streets telling them to get up and get to work.