But why do we automatically view ourselves on the correct side of that line? I've we're engaged, as a matter of policy, in activities that many or most Americans believe to be evil, doesn't that put the drawing of the line into question?
So yes, lets not go ranking countries by evilness - but North Korea is so beyond that that your equivocating is offensive.
It's not nearly so simple. If we drew the line according to what portion of our population we imprison, then the USA would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with North Korea, with the rest of the world nearly an order of magnitude lower.
Consider https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23pr...
The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, ...
China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. ...
The United States comes in first, too, ... in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)
The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.
The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.
Why do you think the situation is different in North Korea?
Yes, it's not simple. A single metric will not draw a meaningful line.
Compared to the average person in North Korea (imprisoned or not) American prisoners are very well treated. They have balanced diets, and can read anything they please. Even if everyone in America was imprisoned, I think America would still come out as a more humane dictatorship than North Korea if half of what I've read about that country is true.