Mr Rumsfeld showed the picture to illustrate how backward the northern regime really is - and how oppressed its people are. Without electricity there can be none of the appliances that make life easy and that we take for granted, he said.
"Except for my wife and family, that is my favourite photo," said Mr Rumsfeld.
"It says it all. There's the south, the same people as the north, the same resources north and south, and the big difference is in the south it's a free political system and a free economic system.
"The people in the north are starving, their growth is stunted. It's a shame, a tragedy."