Look! By ASSOCIATED PRESS
The North Korea they want us to see... and the North Korea we saw when press bus took wrong turn
- Most foreign visitors to Pyongyang on the Communist North Korea never witness a pothole or a traffic jam
- Journalists saw crumbling apartment blocks and two men in wheelchairs waiting at a bus stop
By ASSOCIATED PRESS PUBLISHED: 20:03 GMT, 12 April 2012 | UPDATED: 16:14 GMT, 13 April 2012
A wrong turning gave a bus full of western journalists a glimpse of a different side to North Korea today. Most foreign visitors to Pyongyang on the Communist heartland never witness a pothole, a traffic jam or a piece of litter bigger than a cigarette butt. Those with physical disabilities are hidden from view as is graffiti. Buses catering for people outside of North Korea only ever take roads which are well-maintained and spotlessly clean which is why photographers couldn’t wait to start snapping away when a Government-run tour inadvertently veered from the official path.
Towering: A large modern apartment block in Pyongyang, North Korea, which the regime is happy for foreigners to see
Hidden from view: Grim crumbling buildings inhabited by North Korean residents in the capital city mingle on the side of the street in Pyongyang
Instead of gleaming buildings such as the computer labs at Kim Il Sung University, filled with people whom the authorities insist are representative of the population, reporters saw crumbling apartment blocks and two men in wheelchairs waiting at a bus stop. Old people trudged along the sidewalk, some with handmade backpacks crafted from canvas bags. In place of the well-lit high-rise homes, there were shops shrouded in darkness and pavements lined in dirt rather than smooth tarmac.
There were stores with no lights, and side roads so battered they were more dirt than pavement. 'Perhaps this is an incorrect road?' mumbled one of the North Korean minders, well-dressed government officials who restrict reporters to meticulously staged presentations that inevitably center on praise for the three generations of Kim family who have ruled this country since 1948.
Grim: A North Korean man pushes a wheelbarrow past a pile of coal in Pyongyang
Manual labour: North Korean men at work close to the water on an industrial site. The images depict a world that North Korean officials try and hide
The three buses quickly reversed away from the less wealthy area of the city and headed back towards the original intended target, a plush, marbled building called the Hana Music Information Centre where recently deceased leader Kim Jong II made one of his final public appearances before his death in December last year. CBS news reported that Ri Jinju, who was leading the tour, said: ‘I hope that the journalists present here report only the absolute truth.
How life REALLY is: Poor North Koreans living in a run-down concrete residential compound in Pyongyang, North Korea
The North Korea they want you to see: University students swim inside a modern gleaming swimming pool complex at Kim Il-Sung University
Plush: North Koreans relax in a smart new jacuzzi at Kim Il-sung University - but the reality is very different to the life of most people
Modern: University students stand on a platform at the swimming pool before going down a slide
'The truth about how much our people miss our comrade Kim Jong Il, and how strong the unity is between the people and leadership, who are vigorously carrying out the leaders' instructions to build a great, prosperous and powerful nation.’ So controlling is the regime that police will detain and potentially expel any foreigner who tries to explore further afield than the few hotels that they are permitted to stay in. According to Anthony Brunello, a professor at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, those in charge will go to huge lengths to create a system that will keep the Kim family in power.
"They've managed to create a process of control that works," he said.
Gloom: A woman carries a baby on her back as she walks through an area of the North Korean city which resembles Soviet Russia
Real life for North Koreans: Two men stood by a concrete wall look up at a plane flying overhead yesterday. To many North Koreans these pictures likely depict a very middle class life as conditions in the countryside are far grimmer
Rundown highrise: A residential tower block seen in Pyongyang yesterday as a bus full of journalists took a wrong turn into an area that is normally hidden from them
What they want you to see: THousands of people gather for the unveiling of statues of the North Korean leaders, Kim Il Sung, and his son Kim Jong Il, during an unveiling ceremony in Pyongyang
Bizarre: Cartoon characters decorate the outside of the Dudan duck factory which employs 1,000 workers and produces 7,000 tons of duck products a year in Pyongyang
At Kim Il Sung University students young people in the swimming pool were seen enjoying the luxurious, well-finished surroundings that feature plastic slides and a jacuzzi. Journalists normally see only the clean streets outside their bus windows, and the showcase buildings - the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, the palace commemorating the Kims' 'juche' philosophy of self-reliance, the computer labs at Kim Il Sung University - filled with people that the minders insist are everyday North Koreans.
The students in the classrooms don't glance up as dozens of reporters rumble in, and the professor's lecture continues without pause. The young people in the university pool careen down the plastic slide, in front of TV cameras, as if they are completely alone. Ri heaps high praise on her former leader. She says: ‘The more time passes by the more we miss our Dear Leader Kim Jong II. ‘I don't think we can ever find any person so great.’
Dilapidated old travel car: North Korean commuters pass by in a trolley car in Pyongyang - in a far cry from the modern image of the country the regime want to present
Salughterhouse: A North Korean woman cleans ducks on a processing line at the Dudan duck factory
It's not clear why the regime hides places like the dusty, potholed neighborhood, which is just a mile or so from the centre of town, across the trolley tracks and just off Tongil Street. It doesn't look like a war zone, or even like a particularly rough New York City neighborhood. Many streets in New Delhi, the capital of one of the world's fastest-growing economies, look far more battered and far poorer.To most North Koreans, one-quarter of whom depend on international food aid, living in homes without electricity or running water, the neighborhood would look upper-middle-class.Special permits are required to live in the capital city, and life here is vastly better than it is for most people in the countryside. There are predictable government jobs here, electricity at least a few hours a day, better-stocked stores, schools that have indoor bathrooms. But the officials still hide the run-down neighborhoods. There's a certain view of North Korea they want visitors to have.
Urban living: A schoolgirl walks under a bridge in front of residential tower blocks. Although the accommodation wouldn't look out of place in a Western city like New York, the regime are not keen to show it off
Modern... or technology out of the 1970s? South Korea show off their scientific prowess ahead of their satellite launch - which flopped within seconds
According to defectors North Koreans have similar stresses to those living in capitalist societies. They get frustrated by politics in their jobs, they aspire to buy their own cars and look forward to a holiday at the beach. In times of difficulty such as the famine in the 1990s, they dream of having enough food to prevent their children from starving to death.
Yet the more rundown area the journalists were accidentally driven into today would appear plush to many North Koreans who depend on international food aid and live in homes without electricity or running water.
Special permits are required to live in the capital city, and life there is considerably easier than it is for the majority of people living in the countryside.
There are predictable government jobs in Pyongyang, electricity for at least a few hours a day, better-stocked stores and schools that have indoor bathrooms.
Urban life: North Korean workers, left, repair a street in the city yesterday as a man rides past on a bicycle
Workers: Flowers are laid in a street as the country prepares for national celebrations
A wrong turning gave a bus full of western journalists a glimpse of a different side to North Korea today. Most foreign visitors to Pyongyang on the Communist heartland never witness a pothole, a traffic jam or a piece of litter bigger than a cigarette butt. Those with physical disabilities are hidden from view as is graffiti. Buses catering for people outside of North Korea only ever take roads which are well-maintained and spotlessly clean which is why photographers couldn’t wait to start snapping away when a Government-run tour inadvertently veered from the official path.
Towering: A large modern apartment block in Pyongyang, North Korea, which the regime is happy for foreigners to see
Hidden from view: Grim crumbling buildings inhabited by North Korean residents in the capital city mingle on the side of the street in Pyongyang
Instead of gleaming buildings such as the computer labs at Kim Il Sung University, filled with people whom the authorities insist are representative of the population, reporters saw crumbling apartment blocks and two men in wheelchairs waiting at a bus stop. Old people trudged along the sidewalk, some with handmade backpacks crafted from canvas bags. In place of the well-lit high-rise homes, there were shops shrouded in darkness and pavements lined in dirt rather than smooth tarmac.
There were stores with no lights, and side roads so battered they were more dirt than pavement. 'Perhaps this is an incorrect road?' mumbled one of the North Korean minders, well-dressed government officials who restrict reporters to meticulously staged presentations that inevitably center on praise for the three generations of Kim family who have ruled this country since 1948.
Grim: A North Korean man pushes a wheelbarrow past a pile of coal in Pyongyang
Manual labour: North Korean men at work close to the water on an industrial site. The images depict a world that North Korean officials try and hide
The three buses quickly reversed away from the less wealthy area of the city and headed back towards the original intended target, a plush, marbled building called the Hana Music Information Centre where recently deceased leader Kim Jong II made one of his final public appearances before his death in December last year. CBS news reported that Ri Jinju, who was leading the tour, said: ‘I hope that the journalists present here report only the absolute truth.
How life REALLY is: Poor North Koreans living in a run-down concrete residential compound in Pyongyang, North Korea
The North Korea they want you to see: University students swim inside a modern gleaming swimming pool complex at Kim Il-Sung University
Plush: North Koreans relax in a smart new jacuzzi at Kim Il-sung University - but the reality is very different to the life of most people
Modern: University students stand on a platform at the swimming pool before going down a slide
'The truth about how much our people miss our comrade Kim Jong Il, and how strong the unity is between the people and leadership, who are vigorously carrying out the leaders' instructions to build a great, prosperous and powerful nation.’ So controlling is the regime that police will detain and potentially expel any foreigner who tries to explore further afield than the few hotels that they are permitted to stay in. According to Anthony Brunello, a professor at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, those in charge will go to huge lengths to create a system that will keep the Kim family in power.
"They've managed to create a process of control that works," he said.
Gloom: A woman carries a baby on her back as she walks through an area of the North Korean city which resembles Soviet Russia
Real life for North Koreans: Two men stood by a concrete wall look up at a plane flying overhead yesterday. To many North Koreans these pictures likely depict a very middle class life as conditions in the countryside are far grimmer
Rundown highrise: A residential tower block seen in Pyongyang yesterday as a bus full of journalists took a wrong turn into an area that is normally hidden from them
What they want you to see: THousands of people gather for the unveiling of statues of the North Korean leaders, Kim Il Sung, and his son Kim Jong Il, during an unveiling ceremony in Pyongyang
Bizarre: Cartoon characters decorate the outside of the Dudan duck factory which employs 1,000 workers and produces 7,000 tons of duck products a year in Pyongyang
At Kim Il Sung University students young people in the swimming pool were seen enjoying the luxurious, well-finished surroundings that feature plastic slides and a jacuzzi. Journalists normally see only the clean streets outside their bus windows, and the showcase buildings - the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, the palace commemorating the Kims' 'juche' philosophy of self-reliance, the computer labs at Kim Il Sung University - filled with people that the minders insist are everyday North Koreans.
The students in the classrooms don't glance up as dozens of reporters rumble in, and the professor's lecture continues without pause. The young people in the university pool careen down the plastic slide, in front of TV cameras, as if they are completely alone. Ri heaps high praise on her former leader. She says: ‘The more time passes by the more we miss our Dear Leader Kim Jong II. ‘I don't think we can ever find any person so great.’
Dilapidated old travel car: North Korean commuters pass by in a trolley car in Pyongyang - in a far cry from the modern image of the country the regime want to present
Salughterhouse: A North Korean woman cleans ducks on a processing line at the Dudan duck factory
It's not clear why the regime hides places like the dusty, potholed neighborhood, which is just a mile or so from the centre of town, across the trolley tracks and just off Tongil Street. It doesn't look like a war zone, or even like a particularly rough New York City neighborhood. Many streets in New Delhi, the capital of one of the world's fastest-growing economies, look far more battered and far poorer.To most North Koreans, one-quarter of whom depend on international food aid, living in homes without electricity or running water, the neighborhood would look upper-middle-class.Special permits are required to live in the capital city, and life here is vastly better than it is for most people in the countryside. There are predictable government jobs here, electricity at least a few hours a day, better-stocked stores, schools that have indoor bathrooms. But the officials still hide the run-down neighborhoods. There's a certain view of North Korea they want visitors to have.
Urban living: A schoolgirl walks under a bridge in front of residential tower blocks. Although the accommodation wouldn't look out of place in a Western city like New York, the regime are not keen to show it off
Modern... or technology out of the 1970s? South Korea show off their scientific prowess ahead of their satellite launch - which flopped within seconds
According to defectors North Koreans have similar stresses to those living in capitalist societies. They get frustrated by politics in their jobs, they aspire to buy their own cars and look forward to a holiday at the beach. In times of difficulty such as the famine in the 1990s, they dream of having enough food to prevent their children from starving to death.
Yet the more rundown area the journalists were accidentally driven into today would appear plush to many North Koreans who depend on international food aid and live in homes without electricity or running water.
Special permits are required to live in the capital city, and life there is considerably easier than it is for the majority of people living in the countryside.
There are predictable government jobs in Pyongyang, electricity for at least a few hours a day, better-stocked stores and schools that have indoor bathrooms.
Urban life: North Korean workers, left, repair a street in the city yesterday as a man rides past on a bicycle
Workers: Flowers are laid in a street as the country prepares for national celebrations
