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.
Good article. Thanks for post it.