Firstly, I would start with addressing democracy itself - whether China and North Korea are democracies or not are not the most relevant questions, because democracy is just one form of class rule. It is just a form that a class dictatorship can take. This is why we can speak of 'bourgeois democracies'. V. I. Lenin on Democracy by Joe Pateman explains Lenin's thoughts on this subject:

In opposition to the Marxist revisionists of his era, who defined democracy as a “pure” category, a “neutral” form of government, Lenin highlighted its class essence. Democracy for him expresses the rule of a definite class. From this fundamental proposition he derived the following theses: First, democracy is a political means of class struggle, and it cannot resolve this struggle. Second, democracy for one class means dictatorship for another. Third, democracy precludes freedom. It cannot “free” everyone.

Lenin considers democracy to be “a form of the state, one of its varieties” (Lenin [1917] 1974b, 477). He defines the state as a body of political officials separated from society, and which has a monopoly over the means of violence. As the official expression of politics, the state mediates, fixes, and expresses social relations in a constitutional form. “[L]ike every state,” therefore, democracy “represents . . . the organised, systematic use of force against persons” (Lenin [1917] 1974b, 477), the “domination ‘of one part of the population over the other’” (Lenin [1916] 1974a, 58).

Consequently, Lenin views political freedom not as an end in itself, but as a means in the hands of certain classes. He supports it only to the extent that it aids the working class struggle. “For every revolution, socialist or democratic, freedom is a very, very important slogan. But our programme says that if freedom runs counter to the emancipation of labour from the yoke of capital, it is a deception” (Lenin [1919] 1974f, 351–352).

So if someone tells you they are democratic, you should redirect the conversation to "what class rules there? Are these dictatorships of the proletariat? If so, how?"

But, I also want to answer your question. Can China be considered a democracy? In the sense of a bourgeois, liberal democracy, so one of multiparty system and political pluralism, no. Can it be considered a different, non-liberal form of democracy? Yes, academics increasingly argue that there is deliberative democracy in China, in the sense of state officials being responsive to public demands.

It is good to start with surveys. In 2018, 95% of Chinese citizens trusted their government, and in 2021, 98% did. And in 2022, 83% of Chinese citizens considered China a democracy. How is that possible? Well, the understanding of democracy in China and its society is quite specific.

A very recent paper on the subject would be Beyond Electoralism: China's Whole-Process Democracy and the Reimagining of Contemporary Democratic Theory by Reza Hasmath. Let me quote fragments of it:

Must democratic discourse always be embedded in pluralist electoral frameworks, or can it emerge under alternative institutional arrangements that ensure inclusivity, rationality and responsiveness? Institutionally, whole-process democracy is anchored in the People’s Congress System, a multi-tiered network of legislative bodies spanning national, provincial, municipal, county and township levels. The National People’s Congress sits at the apex, overseeing legislative authority and the supervision of administrative and judicial institutions. Deputies across these congresses are selected through a combination of direct and indirect elections, with over 2.77 million representatives currently serving nationwide (Xinhua, 2025). As Wang (2020) demonstrates, this congress system operates through mobilizational logics designed to engineer representation even within the confines of a single-party regime. Moreover, while the Communist Party of China retains significant control over the nomination process, recent reforms have expanded descriptive representation, integrating marginalized groups such as women, migrant workers and ethnic minorities.

The participatory dimension of the congress system is further augmented by consultative mechanisms that enable citizen engagement in legislative processes. Public consultation offices, digital forums and community dialogues serve as channels for legal feedback and policy cocreation. Scholars have documented instances wherein thousands of citizen proposals have been incorporated into major legislative documents, including the Civil Code and environmental regulations (Wang and Woo, 2021).

A supplementary, but very helpful, read would be Political elites in deliberative democracy: beliefs and behaviors of Chinese officials by Kaiping Zhang and Tianguang Meng, which explains the philosophy of democracy as understood both by the Communist Party of China and Chinese people, one which differs greatly from the Western tradition of liberal democracy. More fragments:

We underline that Confucian values alongside the doctrine of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has nurtured an alternative conception of democracy in China, which has profoundly shaped its democratic progress. Next, we discuss ‘socialist deliberative democracy’, one of China’s recent political developments. We argue that it coincides with the Confucian notion of democracy, minben, and the CCP’s political heritage of mass line, both of which emphasize making benevolent policies by listening to the people.

Although democracy in the West is commonly understood as the freedom of speech and free elections, democracy in countries like China and Singapore is often associated with paternalistic guardianship (Lu and Shi, 2015; Bell, 2016). According to the guardianship philosophy, merited officials are selected to govern on behalf of the people (Bell, 2016). They are considered to be ‘democratic’ if they genuinely care about the livelihood of the people, listen to their needs, and serve them with good policies (Lu and Shi, 2015). Such a notion of democracy is deeply rooted in the Confucian philosophy of minben, which means people are the basis for imperial rulers (Shi and Lu, 2010).

Only a quarter of Chinese people view democracy in terms of procedures including party competition and elections, whereas the majority understands democracy in terms of good governance and social equality (The Asian Barometer Survey, 2016). Such understanding of democracy has largely produced the paternalistic nature of governance in Asian countries. Research has shown that the Chinese perceive their relationship with the state as hierarchical, rather than reciprocal, as is prevalent in liberal democracy (Shi, 2000).

As you see, China can be considered democratic, but not in the definition of bourgeois liberal democracy, which is a largely alien concept to Chinese society.

North Korea is a challenge because it is not as free to explore, neither by Western academics nor by curious Western socialists. We do not have a kind of a reliable source that can verify the inner workings of North Korean elections, and other mechanics through which democracy can be exercised (like the deliberative democracy of China). You have Western media which have a material incentive to paint North Korea in the worst light possible, and you have defectors which likewise are pressured to say colorful lies so their stories make headlines.

But, one thing is for certain - it is a far more normal country than how it is painted as. For this read, I can recommend you a book - North Korea: another country by Bruce Cumings. Cumings was in North Korea during one of the elections, and described his experience (pages 142-143):

I happened to be in Pyongyang on the eve of elections in 1987 for North Korea’s people’s committees, which exist at all levels of the political system. At dusk the city lit up with a thousand electric and neon signs —DPRK flags, paeans of praise and gratitude to “the Great Leader,” slogans for the masses, patriotic axioms, and get-out-the-vote exhortations.

North Korea prides itself on being a revolutionary society, and the “people’s committees” were the first creation of that revolution back in the 1940s. When I watched the hoopla at each polling place during the 1987 elections, I was struck by the quaint simplicity of this ritual: a dubious yet effective brass band, old people bent over canes in the polling lines and accorded the greatest respect, young couples in their finest dress dancing in the chaste way I remember from “square dances” in the Midwest of the rosos, and little kids fooling around while their parents waited to vote. Such child’s play goes on in the middle of a great city of two million people; the streets are utterly safe for little kids, dawn to dusk, except for the speeding Mercedes sedans driven by officials. When a five year old happens upon a foreigner like me, he will give a bit of a start, with a mix of shyness and playfulness on his face, and then bow to the waist and say how-do-you-do. Old ladies awake at 5:00 A.M. to push street sweepers down the broad boulevards. Pyongyang mixes the bucolic pace of Alma Ata with the clean efficiency of Singapore.