The morning skyline of North Korea’s capital city, Pyongyang. This photo was taken from the Yanggakdo Hotel. The pointed building is the unopened Ryugyong Hotel.

This is the military checkpoint at Panmunjom within the DMZ. In the distance, you can spot the infamous 160m flagpole erected inside the village of Kijong-dong. Kijong-dong is referred to by South Korea as ‘propaganda village’, built to lure South Korean soldiers to defect across to the North during the 1950’s. The village can be seen with binoculars from South Korea and despite North Korea’s claims of Kijong-dong being an inhabited collective farm, evidence suggests the buildings are empty concrete shells with lighting on timers to give the impression of activity.

In countryside North Korea, buses as we know them don’t exist.

Talented North Korean artists have become excellent at painting their Great Leaders. Subject matter aside, the DPRK has some of the most spectacular artworks I’ve seen.

A monument of President Kim Il-Sung on Janam Hill in Kaesong. This is the best vantage point of the city, with a magnificent view of Kaesong’s old town filled with preserved traditional-style housing.

Bicycles are the primary means of transport in North Korea. Cars represent an astronomical expense for the average North Korean and it’s cost prohibitive to purchase one. Gasoline shortages make them further expensive to run. Photo taken in Wonsan.

A 50m-long monument on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang depicting the Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Struggle. Men, women and children; soldiers, intellectuals or farmers – everyone fought for the successful liberation of Korea from the Japanese. The scale of this monument is truly massive, each figure is on average 5 metres high.

“Total concentration, total mobilisation. All head to the harvest battle!” A propaganda billboard motivating this years ‘harvest battle’, a campaign where soldiers, office workers, labourers and even elementary school students are mobilised into the countryside for farm work. This is to boost agriculture productivity before winter hits. I took this photo in the rarely visited city of Haeju. Very few foreigners have been here.

Locals chatting on the docks in the port city (and naval base) of Wonsan. Directly behind me sits the out of service ship, Mangyongbong-92. This vessel once provided ferry transport to Japan until North Korea admitted to abducting Japanese citizens. The ferry route was then permanent discontinued after North Korea fired missiles into Japanese waters.

Kim Il-Sung Square. If you’ve ever seen goose-stepping North Korean soldiers on television, then you’ve seen this location. Kim Il-Sung Square is where most military parades, mass dances and rallies take place. In the distance is the Tower of the Juche Idea (Juche Tower).

The fleet of North Korean airline ‘Air Koryo’ at Pyongyang Sunan airport. Air Koryo is the only airline rated by Skytrax as ‘one-star’, and until 2010 was banned from flying into the EU after failing to meet regulatory safety standards.

Private (pseudo-private) ownership of cars has exponentially increased in Pyongyang over recent years due to an emerging wealthy middle-class. Still, to own a car in North Korea’s capital remains exceptional and expensive. Even Korean People’s Army officers can’t go past the convenience and cost efficiency of a bicycle.

Farmers receiving ‘on-the-spot guidance’ from President Kim Il-Sung. This photo was taken en route to the rarely visited south-west city of Haeju. The photo wasn’t very well received.

This is the ‘Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities’. It’s located in Sinchon where an alleged mass murder of North Korean civilians occurred in 1950 at the hands of the United States during the Korean War. For American visitors to North Korea, this may be the one place to make you feel uncomfortable. The murals here are graphic, brutal and depict Americans enjoying the torture of men, women and children using primitive methods. Photographs are uncensored and show mass graves, mutilated corpses and burnt women and children. The final room depicts the surrender of the Americans. The visuals are aggressive and intense, and copies of these murals are used in educational facilities to push the anti-American narrative.

Statues of President Kim Il-Sung and General Kim Jong-Il watch over Wonsan harbour as locals spend their morning fishing. Seafood is plentiful in this city.

This is the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, otherwise known as the Mausoleum. Inside this building, President Kim Il-Sung and General Kim Jong-Il lie in state, embalmed inside clear glass sarcophagi for public viewing. You’re required to bow with sincerity at the feet and at both sides of each Great Leader, but not at the head. Visitations are only possible on certain days, formal dress is required and you’ll go through metal detectors, shoe cleaners and industrial-grade dust blowers. Access is via underground on long travelators. Here is a detailed write-up of my visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

Locals excited to begin a mass dance in Pyongyang for National Day, the celebration of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) in 1948.

Photo taken outside Kaesong, adjacent to the ‘Reunification Highway’ leading to Pyongyang. There were four military checkpoints between Pyongyang and Kaesong.

Locals receiving instruction outside the Pyongyang Military Circus.

Dog meat soup. I passed. There were many speciality dog meat soup restaurants in Pyongyang, it’s so prevalent that the North Korean government regulates the price. We found a dog tooth inside one of these soups.

This is the Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea’s most sacred monument. Locals will visit here to lay flowers and bow in respect for their past two Great Leaders, President Kim Il-Sung and General Kim Jong-Il, who are revered as the guiding fathers of the Korean people. These statues overlook the city and remain illuminated at night.

Just me embarrassing one of my guides during a visit to the Three Revolutions Exhibition in Pyongyang. This exhibition showcases the ideological, technical and cultural power of Kim Il-Sung’s leadership, including space and nuclear advancement. Note the photo directly behind us depicting one of Kim Jong-Il’s visits to this location.

Construction apparatus of this kind are commonplace throughout the entire country. The number of workforce deaths must be absolutely astounding.

“Long live the Workers’ Party of Korea, the leader and the organiser of all victories of the Korean People!” Aesthetically, this is my favourite monument in North Korea. It’s officially known as the Monument to the Korean Workers Party.

Police officers having a discussion on the streets of Kaesong.

The Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang. This is where most foreigners stay upon a visit to North Korea. It’s conveniently isolated on an island so you cannot leave and freeroam the city. Tourists are placed in rooms facing the best parts of Pyongyang existing to the right of this frame. It has been speculated for years the rooms are bugged.

Our lunch today was a Korean banquet presented in small metal bowls traditionally served to royalty in Kaesong’s history.

Young Korean People’s Army recruits just after bowing to the Great Leaders at the Mansudae Grand Monument on Mansu Hill. In the distance, you can see one of Pyongyang’s most recognisable icons, the Monument to the Korean Workers Party.

On a private tour to North Korea, you’ll be assigned two tour guides and a driver. You’ll be greeted by another local guide at most major attractions who will be a walking encyclopedia on the site. Here is my female guide (left) translating for the local guide (right) at the Monument to the Korean Workers Party. Seemingly all female guides are incredibly beautiful. I don’t believe this to be a coincidence.

This building is within the proximity of the specialised Mount Kumgang Tourism region on the south-east border. To the left, a restricted road leading to South Korea, to the right, Mount Kumgang. We were told swiftly (as we passed) that the building is used as a meeting point for family reunification between North and South Korea. In reality, this road hasn’t been used since 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead on a tour here.

Tall white buildings scatter the hillside like mushrooms, intimidating the port city of Wonsan.

A conductor in the Pyongyang Metro. Contradictory to what rumours have long suggested, the people in the metro system are not actors. North Korea opened up both lines and all stops to tourists in 2014. I was part of the first group of foreigners to visit every station. It’s a hive of activity and a crucial service to Pyongyang. The Pyongyang Metro is essentially a North Korean ideological museum, here is an in-depth photo essay I did to give you a look.

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.

Our local guide at Pujon County in the remote north-east. We hiked the woodlands here and visited the Okryonsan Revolutionary Site, once an Anti-Japanese guerilla camp. With pride, we were shown the ‘slogan trees’, trees adorned with loving phrases to President Kim Il-Sung. They are preserved eternally in reinforced glass and people will protect these trees with their lives.

Public holidays in North Korea usually include a colourful and choreographed mass dance celebration. This one was for National Day, the day of the founding of North Korea. As a tourist you’re permitted to join and dance with the locals which I did with my guide. The statement under the portraits translates to “Comrade Kim Il-Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-Il will be with us eternally”.

These are the gardens preceding the International Friendship Exhibition at Mt. Myohyang (Myohyangsan), a 2.5-hour drive from Pyongyang. A visit is a formal occasion and locals will arrive by the bus load to catch a glimpse of the Great Leader’s well-earned treasures, proof of international endearment.

You’re hit in the face by this expansive mural upon entering Chongchon Hotel at Mt Myohyang. Come in, sit down and have a hot cuppa and a cigarette with Dear Leader. Make yourself at home!

This skit during an interlude of the Pyongyang Military Circus left little to the imagination. Militaristic in its entirety, the locals loved it. The last performance depicted a drunk American soldier dressed as a clown and treated as a laughing stock.

Free-trade is illegal in North Korea. Sort-of. A black-market emerged after the ‘Arduous March’ (North Korean famine) in the 90’s, which has slowly become a tolerated grey-market with designated, regulated areas for market activity. These areas are named the ‘jangmadang’ and there are over 500 of them in North Korea. As a tourist, you won’t see a jangmadang. Traders unable to afford stall space at their local jangmadang endeavour to sell their produce on the street. This is actually illegal, and groups of women like this have been nicknamed ‘grasshopper merchants’ inside North Korea as they must hop around to avoid authorities. Photo taken in the middle of a dirt road, somewhere between Haeju and Sariwon.

Structural integrity is an undefined term in North Korea.

Smartly-dressed traffic ladies are iconic in North Korea and their profession is highly respected. Their movements are definitive and militaristic and they hold authority over the road like a traffic light. Traffic ladies will salute those vehicles driven by Worker’s Party of Korea delegates, indicated by their number plates.

One of our guides reading an (allowed, cleared by customs) guidebook on North Korea that one of us brought across the border. He was fascinated to read an outside perspective on his beloved country. Photo taken in the Pyongyang Metro.

“Let’s thoroughly penetrate the militant tasks set out in this year’s New Year message!”, “The great Comrade Kim Jong-Il, we will be faithful till the end!”, “According to the leadership of the great comrade Kim Jong-Un, let’s complete the achievements of Juche revolution until the end!”

Fancy a haircut? There’s a wide variety, choose wisely! In all seriousness, the rumour that North Koreans can choose only from state-approved haircuts is false, but it is illegal to dye your hair anything but black.

About as good as it gets outside Pyongyang and other major municipalities.

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.

During our visit to Hamhung, military helicopters could be spotted flying above us as we walked the beach. That night after a beach clambake and far too much soju, a group of us were intercepted on the beach by a Korean People’s Army officer with an AK47 who in kind terms, motioned that it may be past our bedtime.

The DMZ is the only place in North Korea it’s legal for tourists to photograph soldiers. The soldiers are more than happy to take photos and crack a smile here, they’re even up for selfies. The atmosphere at the DMZ from the North is relaxed and not tense as you imagine. It’s an ironic far cry from the scare tactics and intimidation used by South Korean tour guides and American servicemen on that side of the border.

The portraits of President Kim Il-Sung and General Kim Jong-Il are even inside each train carriage. The Pyongyang Metro is flooded with propaganda; downtime spent transiting is an excellent opportunity for ideological impression.

Students in Pyongyang curious about what we’re up to in Kim Il-Sung Square.

The local school bus. Children stack on top of one another for transit.

A local guide giving us a recap on the Korean War from the North Korean perspective, a version of events often discredited or unheard. These perfectly manicured gardens serve as the gateway to the ‘Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum’.

A young boy sits innocently within a giant militaristic propaganda mural in the city of Haeju. It says “Long live the great victory of Songun (military-first) politics!”

Snake soju (rice wine), ginseng jelly and other North Korean delicacies are for sale at many tourist locations. The snake soju is bottled with a live snake, the more venomous, the more expensive and the greater the ‘medicinal’ payoff. It’s the peak of luxury in North Korea.

A captured US Army helicopter showcased at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang. Note the photos above, one of the American ‘imperialists’ surrendering and the other a gruesome uncensored photo of an American pilot shot in the head. Schoolchildren visit here in groups to learn about the Korean War.

A local in Pyongyang chatting to a police officer after being pulled over.

Taking a nap on the back of a moving coal powered truck.

“Long live the great revolutionary traditions of our party, hooray!”, “National Reunification, frequent self-defence.” To the right sits the ‘Arch of Triumph’, which was built with exactly 25,500 blocks, one for each day of President Kim Il-Sung’s life for his 70th birthday.

Music Appreciation Room. That’s what the sign said on the door. Photo taken inside the Grand Peoples Study House, Pyongyang.

The main ministerial building in Kim Il-Sung Square, Pyongyang. Translations: “Long live our glorious Songun (military-first) revolutionary idea!” and “Long live our Democratic People’s Republic!”

Early morning in Kaesong, an industrial city near the DMZ. Kaesong was once the capital of Korea and remains a hub of ancient tradition. It’s also famous for its ginseng cultivation.

A countryside town we drove past east of Kaesong along the DMZ.

Soldiers from the Korean People’s Army accompanied us on the brisk drive into the DMZ between tank traps and an active minefield. This was to reach the Joint Security Area (JSA) and the Demarcation Line (political border) itself. I wrote a virtual-tour of my visit to the DMZ here.

During National Day celebrations in Moranbong Park in Pyongyang, I was invited over by a Pyongyang family to join them for lunch and soju (rice wine). One of my guides acted as the translator as I asked them about their daily life and what it was like to live in Pyongyang. “It’s a great place to live, everyone has a job.”

Naengmyeon noodles, a delicacy originating in Pyongyang. It’s a dish served cold with dressing and red chilli paste. It’s quite tasty but difficult to eat with chopsticks.

It’s illegal for tourists to handle or obtain local North Korean Won. To pay, you must use either USD, Euro or Chinese RMB. Lower denominations are highly recommended, as correct change is rarely given. I received a Sprite, chewing gum and a North Korean flag postage stamp as change during this visit and sometimes got no change at all.

A North Korean monk at the Pohyon Buddhist Temple at Mt. Myohyang. Minority religion took me off guard in North Korea, an otherwise atheist nation with a mandatory belief system of the Juche ideology, the brainchild of President Kim Il-Sung himself. Buddhist temples in North Korea are cultural relics of the past and those who worship have approval. There was even a Russian Orthodox Church in Pyongyang and there’s a mosque in the diplomatic compound. Unauthorised religious activity, especially proselytising in North Korea carries harsh punishment and has been the catalyst behind most foreigner detainments.

Formally dressed ladies arriving to show their respects to the Great Leaders lying in state at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun (The Mausoleum).

Locals seen tirelessly carrying sacks up and down Manphok Valley at Mt. Myohyang for weight training. Some are very young.

I played a round of golf at Pyongyang Golf Course. One of my guides came prepared for a day on the grass by wearing high heels. She quickly regretted that decision. My guides knew nothing about golf and had never visited the course before, it’s so rarely visited that we even got lost trying to find it. My 18-hole round here ended up being one of my favourite experiences in North Korea, here is a further look.

Early morning in Kaesong city. As I took this photo, 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. It felt like a textbook example of communist society.

‘Folklore Street’ is a development in the city of Sariwon, south of Pyongyang. Its purpose is to present a romanticised version of ancient Korea.

Pyongyang appears to be pieced together like colourful lego from a distance.

This is the entrance to the International Friendship Exhibition. The doors part ways as you approach. Behind is a lavish tunnel system carved into the mountains with numbered rooms which proudly display hundreds of thousands of gifts given to each Great Leader by foreign governments and entities. The basketball signed by Michael Jordan and given to General Kim Jong-Il by Madeleine Albright is showcased here, as are extravagant gifts like golden AK47’s, bear skin rugs and even a taxidermied alligator cocktail server. Almost every nation on earth is represented and this site is used as evidence of the Great Leader’s international diplomacy prowess, influence and endearment.

The American ‘Spy Ship’ USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea in 1968. It remains docked in the Taedong River in Pyongyang and is used as a leading propaganda tool, solid evidence of American aggression. As a tourist you’re encouraged to board the vessel where you’ll see bullet holes, watch a video on the capture and hear stories of North Korean heroism. The USS Pueblo remains a commissioned vessel, the only American vessel still held captive.

Gardens are easily maintained in Pyongyang. Photo taken at The Mausoleum.

“Let’s get revenge on the imperialist murderers who brutally murdered our innocent children!” Photo taken in Sinchon. This man is one of the three survivors pictured to the right of an alleged massacre by the United States of women and children in a nursery. Just outside is a giant mural depicting American soldiers murdering women and throwing and stepping on the necks of children.

An average street in Haeju. The sign says “The Cultural Revolution.”

“The Great Comrade Kim Il-Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-Il will be with us eternally.” A major ministerial building in central Pyongyang.

A young girl dressed for the National Day festivities in Moranbong Park.

This couple were having their wedding day photos taken at the Pyongyang Botanical Gardens. The bride, groom and family included us in some photos. We weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion but I can’t imagine many North Korean weddings have had foreigner attendees, so they likely acquired some bragging rights today, as did we.

Mobile phones are now commonplace in North Korea’s major cities. ‘Bar’ phones, flip phones and touch screens were all available, usually Chinese imported models with customised (censored) software. They connect via Koryolink, North Korea’s main telecommunications network that has blocked both internet access and international calls. Koryolink has a separate network for foreigners and you are unable to call North Korean SIM’s and they can’t call you.

This is one of my guides taking his first ever golf shot at Pyongyang Golf Course. He had never heard of golf before today and he took a real liking to it. A 4 hour round turned into 6 hours as he was adamant on learning.

With this scene in Pyongyang, you could almost forget you were in North Korea. Note also the solar panels on the street lights.

This is Masikryong Hotel inside the Masikryong Ski Resort (Masik Pass), one of the most luxurious hotels in North Korea. It was built at the order of Marshal Kim Jong-Un in just 10 months by the Korean People’s Army to boost tourism numbers. It’s situated in the middle of nowhere and the lights on arrival hit you like a hotel in Las Vegas. I visited during summer so there was no snow and no other guests, yet there was more staff than us. It was an odd visit, but an international standard 5-star hotel inside.

Mount Kumgang (Kumgangsan) is known for its exclusive scenic beauty found nowhere else in North Korea. We did some hiking here to reach Kuryong Falls. It’s quite close to the border with South Korea on the south east coast. Once upon a time, South Korean tourists were permitted to visit this region of North Korea on short tours across the DMZ and it’s noticeably sterile of propaganda.

This photo is a true window into Pyongyang and the political smokescreen it upholds. Those beautiful skyscrapers are not representative of anywhere else in the country.