My parents were denied in late 80s even trip to former Yugoslavia, which was a neutral state (but you could escape from there to Austria). They really wanted to show their kiddo a nice sea, nothing more, for landlocked countries it was a very special experience. They were not dissidents or anything, both university educated (which was a rarity back then and people had to actually study hard unlike these days due to messed up incentives, but thats another topic). Heck, even travel to Poland which was neighbor and communist as much as us was very complicated and frequently denied.
My father, after maybe 2 years of attempts to get approval for travel to Yugoslavia, ended up in dark lit room with just 1 guy from secret service sitting behind the desk. The guy just stared at him for 45 minutes straight, eye to eye, no word uttered. Absolute power and its projection. Of course, denied. That was former Czechoslovakia, Slovakia part. I've heard some people could travel a bit more, but generally there were reasons for that and they were not nice reasons. At least I can say I am proud of my parents for keeping their morals when there were strong motivations to betray them.
My grandpa visited Italy, Egypt, Cuba and India. I doubt that NK citizens can do it now unless they are high-ranking party members.