A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders

Instant Articles

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders

Jacob Miller - October 2, 2017

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — This is the typical restaurant setting inside Pyongyang. As a general rule, the restaurants you dine at as a tourist will be empty with no other expected guests. Karaoke will always be available and murals of holy places such as Mt. Paektu (Paektusan) decorate the interiors. Earthnuthshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — A rural village outside Pyongyang and other major municipalities. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — aengmyeon noodles, a delicacy originating in Pyongyang. It’s a dish served cold with dressing and red chili paste. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — Flowers lay at the foot of an exemplary monument of the Great Leaders at the Mansudae Art Studio, Pyongyang. Mansudae Art Studio is the only studio permitted to depict the likeness of the hereditary Kim family. Earthnuthshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — The local school bus. Children stack on top of one another for transportation to the state school. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — The Pyongyang Times translated into English. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — The southern gateway to Pyongyang denoted by the Arch of Reunification. Behind me is a controlled access six-lane highway that heads south to the Demilitarized Zone. Citizens require special permission to live, work or even enter Pyongyang. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — All photos of the Great Leader’s must be in a frame that’s thicker at the top, this way they are always looking down upon those in the room. It’s a legal requirement for these portraits to feature in every household and be regularly cleaned with a special cloth for official inspection by the state. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — This is the Pyongyang-Kaesong Motorway (Reunification Highway) providing a direct link to the DMZ. It’s a long, lonely controlled access no man’s land bypassing most rural towns and villages. It’s rough, potholed and poorly maintained but it’s still the best highway in the North Korea outside Pyongyang. There were seven military checkpoints from Pyongyang to DMZ. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — Early morning in Kaesong city. Propaganda speeches were loudly blasting into the streets from loudspeakers placed on buildings. There is no vehicular traffic, so the city is eerily quiet except for that melodramatic voice piercing the streets. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — “According to the Party’s leadership, let’s work vigorously to a more prosperous country and homeland!”, “Let’s sweat more for the motherland!”, “What have I dedicated to the country?” A rare look at the North Korean manual labor industry, we were taken to the Hungnam Fertiliser Factory in Hamhung. Earthnuthshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — “The Great Comrade Kim Il-Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-Il will be with us eternally.” A major ministerial building in central Pyongyang. Earthnuthsell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — Desolate and austere Communist Apartment blocks. Earthnuthshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — Mount Kumgang (Kumgangsan) is known for its exclusive scenic beauty found nowhere else in North Korea. It’s quite close to the border with South Korea on the south-east coast. Earthnuthsell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — The beautiful autumn woodlands in the untouched countryside of Pujon County. Earthnutshell

A Rare Glimpse Inside North Korea’s Secretive Borders — This photo was taken in Sinuiju, North Korea and China can be seen across the water. Earthnutshell

Read More:

VOX – Juche, The State Ideology That Makes North Koreans Revere Kim Jong Un

Time Magazine – The Political Philosophy of Juche

Council Foreign Relations – North Korea’s Military Capabilities

Carnegie Endowment – The State of the North Korean Military

BBC Channel – What We Can Expect To See At North Korea’s ‘Biggest Military Parade’

Associate Press – Juche Rules North Korean Propaganda, But What Does It Mean?

<< Previous

Advertisement