The world's attitude toward North Korea tends to swing between playful mocking and genuine horror.

On June 12, President Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong U for a highly-anticipated summit. Taking place in Singapore, the meeting will focus on persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

Like dictatorships before it — namely Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia — North Korea tends to embody its dictatorial nature through its architecture.

There's the country's fondness for pastel hues, which recall 1950s Americana, on the one hand. And there are the towering concrete buildings that shroud observers in their shadow on the other.

In a nation that keeps so much under wraps, the architecture ends up speaking volumes.