Today almost all people see North Korea as an isolated country ruled by terrible people who are starving their citizens. Was there ever a country in the past that was regarded n a similar way to how people view North Korea now?
Cambodia under the Khmer Rogue could arguably be called even worse. Here's a good idea from the ama a few days ago:
The one thing they did even more idiotic than the rest, was economy - they thought, that production of rice will lead them to become a world power (they've projected in some document, that they will militarily surpass USSR in the year 2000). They've divided whole country into similar zones, every zone had to produce the same amount of rice (and, as far as I remember, it was an absurd amount) - it didnt' matter, that particular place was a salt field, jungle or fishing village, they had to produce rice. And trade was illegal.
But out of other countries... I can't really think of another one. Isolation has always been common (the idea of globalization was never popular for a long time). But the last question ('were there countries in the past regarded in the same way Korea is now') is interesting. To use the other persons example of Japan while isolated, wasn't exactly looked down on that much. I would have to say the Mongols before they were united.
Apologies if this isn't appropriate, but wouldn't Albania under Enver Hoxha be considered a good example? I'm certainly not an expert, so I would love if someone more knowledgeable would chime in, but I'm pretty sure it isolated itself pretty well from the outside world. From what I recall when reading about Hoxha, he was a hardcore Stalinist until Stalin died, then broke with Kruschev and gravitated toward Mao. When China's policies changed under Deng Xiaoping, he isolated the country even further as he then considered Albania the last true bastion of Communism left.
Hoxha's regime even built ~700,000 small, one-man concrete bunkers and placed them around the country to deter a possible invasion from Yugoslavia (or Greece, or whoever else). This is a LOT of bunkers, considering the population was only 3-4 times this number. They're still all over the place, even over twenty years later.
I saw these bunkers while traveling through Albania a few weeks ago. I also spoke to a few locals, some of whom literally told me Albania was MORE isolated than North Korea during thime. I took this to be hyperbole, as it's hard to quantify isolation, but it at least says something about how some people felt at the time (even if they may be misremembering!).