Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Human Rights)

When I was first taking an interest in politics in my early teens, I asked my father, whom I fear the hon. Member for Halifax (Mrs. Riordan) would have regarded as an incorrigible cold war warrior, why the German Democratic Republic was so called. My late father—as he now is—succinctly replied, ““Ah, son, it is called that precisely because it isn’t.””