The importance of height in basketball has long been obvious, no more so than as giants on the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks have battled it out in the NBA finals this week.

And this fact has not escaped notice in basketball-loving North Korea, which has consistently blamed its players’ smaller statures for a lack of success at the highest levels.

But while the DPRK may believe that size is holding its teams back, for decades it has put forward an improbable solution — play more basketball to grow taller.

Since at least the 1960s, North Korean propaganda has advanced