I don't know either. I figgered you conservatives would be inclined to accept any information that comes from the government. Aren't you one of the fools who thinks the information in the Stephen Hayes memo is credible?

If you don't like that source, you can put "North Korea" and "death rate" into any good search engine and find plenty more.

Where do you think North Korea mortality statistics actually come from? If not from outside intelligence estimates (how reliable is that?), then from North Korea itself, which would be largely lies.

I doubt the CIA would list stats from North Korea's government as facts, but it's possible. I assume the intel come from a variety of sources and analysts make their best estimate. I can see why the CIA might purposefully overestimate the number of deaths, but not the converse.

And why do you feel obliged to jump up and defend North Korea?

You interpret challenging an unsupported "fact" as defending North Korea? Interesting. Do you feel an obligation to believe untrue slurs about regimes you consider evil? Do you not believe those untruths but think they should go unchallenged
to serve as useful propaganda? Please explain.