My knowledge of NK is fairly limited, but I genuinely don't see what help would computers do to NK. Do they have access to the internet? What good do computers do without an internet connection? Maybe you can play some games, maybe you can load some software like spreadsheets but that's assuming they have books to learn how to use it. Would it be for training so they can get some better jobs? Are there computer jobs?
I had a computer for 12 years before my first Internet connection. Actually didn't have a modem at all.
It was hugely influential in my development. I drew things, animated things, made music, wrote school papers and a neighborhood newsletter, made videos with wipes and title cards, wrote my first resume (at 15, hah), and of course played some games.
I give a tremendous amount of credit to having that in the home for my current computer literacy and career path.
Back in the old days we learned about computers without the internet.
You had mainly paper documentation. With 10 or so of the best tech manuals to read, and a bunch of old machines to network together, and a few CDs of useful software, the right person could easily become highly skilled.
And by definition hacking means working out things that aren't already known (by many at least) so the absence of say stackoverflow and the other joys of the internet wouldn't slow those guys down either.
>>What good do computers do without an internet connection?
I mean, computers have accelerated nearly every single industrial process they touched by few orders of magnitude, long before internet was a thing. They will be used exactly for the same purpose in NK still - operating machinery, operating poing of sale systems, keeping inventory, teaching.....also NK has intranet network, while the knowledge about it is limited, it's basically a very restricted and heavily filtered version of internet available to North Koreans.
There are accounts from people who have even tought computer science in NK:
The economy of North Korea is an enigma, but despite decades of very poor planning, they do have industry. I'm sure they have jobs that need basic computer literacy.
