Thanks - yes that implies DPRK was "fairly close" to getting full documents lodged in time for the 2012 WHC and might be expected to complete the job for 2013!! Though I can never understand why countries submit "incomplete" documents. Is it that it is unclear exactly which documents are required to make a submission "complete" or are the bureaucrats just trying to give an impression of "progress" to their governments by at least submitting something!!
They obviously needed a bit of "On the spot guidance" from the Dear Leader!! We used to gain regular amusement from asking our guide what exactly was happening in the 1000s of photos/paintings we were shown in every museum, exhibition and theatre of the "Dear Leader" at pig farms, factories, mines, cultural events etc etc etc ad nauseam, followed by groups of flunkies carrying notebooks in which they recorded his every word. The answer was always the same :- "He is giving on the spot guidance"!!!!! The man is clearly a polymath, a genius, an Einstein capable of sorting out problems in every subject - though I suppose we also have a few people in our governments and corporations who "possess" such attributes!!
I sometimes think about the functionaries who are preparing sites in these autocratic countries (Turkmenistan is another I have had contact with). Presumably they have a genuine interest in the archaeology, history, preservation etc of the cultural sites they are involved in and will be intelligent people trying to survive as best they can in difficult circumstances. Such work must be something of an academic retreat from the daily grind providing intellectual interest at least less imbued with the "politicisation" which pervades almost every other daily activity. OK, I am sure they at least have to pay lip service to the political reality via meetings and outward shows of support in order to maintain their "cadre" benefits and lifestyle, but it must also be a good place to escape a lot of this and indulge in genuine objective scientific research and activity. Also to manage some authorised contact with the "outside" world via access to academic journals and even the occasional visit to/from overseas! Is attempting to gain UNESCO inscription a good or a bad thing for them? A downside must be the glare of publicity they find themselves in - and "failure" could have personal consequences - think of the DPRK football team at the last World Cup (in stark contrast to the "fame" which followed the team of 1966!). Such "putting one's head above the parapet" is a risky strategy - perhaps it is better to lie low and continue to carry out low level preservation and research in some backwater. I am reminded of stories from the Soviet era in Gulag Archipelago and other books of what happened to those who "flew too close to the sun" in USSR | 
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