North Korea is a very oppressive country. Countless numbers of reports have all pointed to the fact. A large number of restrictions, no internet connection, a very low standard of living, and a ruthless dictator make this country a hellhole and one of the worst countries to live in.
Amidst all of this, London-based photographer Michal Huniewicz visited North Korea as a tourist and clicked photographs that the government there doesn’t want anyone to see.
We bring you some that show the stark difference between the real North Korea and the one that they put up for the world to see.
1. Difference between North Korea (left) and China (right)
2. A list of things you have to submit before entering
3. First photo in North Korea
4. Little girls playing in farm fields
5. Photo from a train
6. Farmlands and people working
7. Just another work day
8. Photos of leaders and flags are everywhere
9. Bus rides through the suburbs
10. Road to Pyongyang
11. Fake commuters at Railway Station when there was only one train scheduled
12. Outside the railway station, where the guide asked not to click photographs
13. The driver would slow down at attractive places and accelerate in the poorer parts
14. A brutalist honeycomb architecture of residence quarters
15. A view of Pyongyang from the hotel
16. Very pale architecture with no visual appeal
17. Flags. Flags everywhere!
18. The Central District Study House
19. Statues of the leaders
20. According to a law, only entire photographs of the statues are allowed to be clicked
21. Strict supervision is imposed upon people to keep the place clean
22. Encyclopedias, only of the royal family
23. Workers at work
24. Second tallest Arch of Triumph in the world
25. Propaganda posters everywhere
26. Communism is the key
27. More mundane brutalist architecture
28. Soldiers and army officials patrol the streets frequently
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What’s real amidst all the fakeness?
Be your own judge.
Image sources: Road to North Korea, Ostensibly Ordinary: Pyongyang
Cover image source