Really, a lot of the problems with North Korea's economy isexacerbated by international sanctions, which prevent other countries from exporting goods to the North. Part of the reason why they resort to more sneaky and dishonest ways to fund their countries treasury.

There has been visits to North Korea using investigative journalism, ruling out things like forced state haircuts (sounds ridiculous enough). A lot of these news sources seem to come from dishonest and sensationalised titles and media. I think it's best to look at it from the perspective of investigative media, as North Korea is more secretive than the US media pretends it to not be. So, most reports are just rumours rather than solid investigations.