This is an incredible oversimplification(at best) which does not hold as-is.
I know enough math people who are ABYSMAL at coding due to the differences between domains and the constraints that shaped their way of thinking, and a lot of linguists who are surprisingly good at it due to just that.
Italian major CS minor here:
Not good at math (working on it) but good at programming (full time salaried job with good pay doesn't mean I'm good at it but it'd about the only credential I have) (also working on it).
I dismissed programming as a freshman because I was so bad at math in high school. Turns out my high school teachers were very bad teachers (shocking when they're paid so little, who would've thought? ) I learned Italian fluently, spent a few years overseas immersing myself in it, came home and had a rough time finding my passion. Took a gap year and messed about with some online coding classes (code academy) and realized I loved it. It felt like a new language that instead of being expressively emotional it was a way to express logic and rules. I like logic and rules.
So I completed the minor +4 higher level classes and taught myself mobile development. No regrets... Besides not going into it as a major maybe.
Most of the North Korean people are starving most of the time - where are they practicing programming on, blackboards? The economic situation is VERY similar to Cuba before US lifted the embargo. Has any one of you heard famous hacking group originated from Cuba?
It doesn't directly, but it indicates that the nation has an ability to create a pipeline to identify and train talented students for a high-performance intellectual pursuit if they wish to.
