

Korean Children’s Union When North Korean children turn 7, they become indoctrinated into the North Korean Children’s Union. In a huge ceremony, the children are given red scarves, which are tied around their shoulders by retired military personnel and then make a pledge to their Supreme Leader.



Housing for the Masses This massive structure is quite typical on North Korean apartment buildings in their capital city. As depressing at it looks, the people living here are actually the lucky ones, as they do not face the abhorrent conditions of living in the countryside. It is apparent how unmaintained the building is, so one can only imagine how it looks inside. There is rumor that the construction workers are pumped with methamphetimines to build something like this with more speed.





Hardly a Vehicle in Sight You will probably notice that in North Korea, there are hardly any transportation vehicles on the roads. Most local people cannot even come close to affording a car, and most likely they would be denied a driver’s license regardless. However, there is another reason: local people must have a permit to travel within the country. That’s right. They are under no circumstances allowed to leave the country, but they also must have written permission to travel within it.



They Hate the USA Ever since the Korean war, when America sided with South Korea, the North Koreans have had a massive, unadulterated hatred of America and its citizens. This notion is strongly encouraged by the regime, as shown by the countless museums, billboards, lessons, and all around brainwashing shown to North Korean citizens. From a very young age, they are told about how the Americans came in and did unspeakable war crimes to the people of North Korea, and so their hatred is brewed and fanned.

Street Cleaning This is one of the areas that tourists are actually allowed to visit. You can see that it is kept immaculately clean, not a blade of grass out of place. And yet, there are some locals thoroughly cleaning it. In case they were to miss a spot, a North Korean soldier stands guard to make sure they are doing their job correctly. There is also a young boy with them, who looks stone faced and a quite dirty.



Haircuts We’ve mentioned that this is a Socialist regime, and this doesn’t change when it comes to your own person style. North Korea has a specified list of hairstyles for both men and women that one can choose from. You must keep your hair styled in one of the regulated options at all times. There are 28 styles in total for men and women. Men must keep their hair shorter than 5cm (about 2 inches), but elderly men are allowed 7cm.



A Shiny Outward Appearance This is a man street in the city of Pyongyang. It almost looks like a normal big city that you would find all over the map. These buildings look maintained and new, as if they’d just recently gotten a fresh coat of paint. It is now known (thanks to defectors who managed to smuggle pictures with them) that the outer appearances of the buildings are maintained for aesthetic reasons, but on the inside, where tourists are not allowed, show the truth.



Colorful Clothing These local North Korean women are preparing to celebrate their country’s founding. On September 9th 1948, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was officially recognized as a real country. National Day (sometimes called Republic Day) is one of the most important holidays in North Korea, along with the birthdays of the Supreme Leaders (Day of the Shining Star and Day of the Sun). This holiday is celebrated with music and dance performances, artistic shows, exhibitions, and sporting events.

The Road Ends Here This is not such an unusual sight in a place like North Korea. Along the miles of farmland, shanty construction and unfinished roads can be seen. As the vast majority of the country does not have cars, these unfinished roads do not get in the way of farming. Most likely the country, which is unbelievably poor, despite what the regime wants you to think, ran out of money for the road and simply stopped building it.



Perfect Performances These children might look young, but you can bet that their performance is going to be absolutely flawless. Children begin learning to perfect performances in music, dance, art, and more at an extremely young age (some as young as 2 years old). They have militant training in all of these subjects, and can be punished if they are not perfect. The point of all this? To perform for their Supreme Leader and to show foreigners how perfect North Korea’s children are.





Paying Homage to Their Supreme “Gods” Statues and tributes to the Supreme Leaders can be seen all throughout North Korea. During ceremonies and occasions (such as the birthday and death anniversary of Kim Jong-il, or any national holiday) North Koreans are required to go and pay respects to their leaders, any absence is a punishable offense. Many North Koreans have been so brainwashed that they actually get quite emotional at these tributes, and can be seen bowing, crying, and shaking.



Cleaning Nothing Since tourism is so hyper-managed in North Korea, there are even specific routes that foreign tours are taken on. These routes are carefully maintained by the residents of the area, to an obsessive level. These street cleaners clean an absolutely spotless area to make sure that tourists know how immaculately clean the country is, as well as to show that everyone is employed and busy. These cleaners (and other residents) are never smiling, they are simply obeying.



Three Tall Statues It seems to be an ongoing theme here that the idols of the Supreme Leaders are of much more importance to the North Korean regime than its inhabitants. From a distance, you can see three statues of people towering over the city square. These statues are of first Supreme Leader Kim Il-sung, his late son, Kim Jong-il, and his wife Kim Jong-Suk.



A Missing Floor In the only hotel that tourists are allowed to stay in, there is a working elevator. However, if you look at the buttons, you’ll see that the fifth floor is missing. You have to take the stairs to get to the floor. It is off-limits to tourists, but you do manage to get a sneak peek, you’ll end up seeing a whole bunch of propaganda posters. This is most likely used to spy on the foreign hotel guests.



A Special Privilege In the city of Pyongyang, the residents are the lucky ones. These privileged people get to live in actual homes and have actual jobs. They even get to ride on their one-line subway to get to and from these jobs. To tell them apart from the people living in the desolately poor countryside (which isn’t very difficult, if you ask us) they wear a special red badge with, you guessed it, the Supreme Leaders faces on it.





Socialist Propaganda Aside from the effigies of the Supreme Leaders all over the place, there is also socialist propaganda, mostly in the form of murals, in every corner of the country. Unlike the faces of the actual real-live people living in the country, the people painted in these murals are smiling and happy living as a socialist regime. There is also a lot of war and victory propaganda, as North Korea is made to believe that it was victorious in the Korean War.





Public Transportation The majority of North Korea is desolately poor, so it comes as no surprise that there is no solid public transportation set up for them, especially in rural areas. Since the roads are so poorly maintained (as in, they are not maintained at all), there are no safe paths for large buses to travel outside of the city. This is an example of a makeshift “bus” that packs in way too many people trying to get to work.

The Countryside This is North Korea’s second-largest city, Hamhung. It is quite impoverished, and falling apart. There are not many roads, but the ones that do exist are falling apart and full of potholes and cracks. Many poor looking people can be seen carrying sacks and walking up and down dirt roads. Most do not even own a bicycle. Here a woman and what seems to be an underage child can be seen carrying heavy sacks and walking down a dirt path.



The Lone Hotel The Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, is the only hotel that foreigners are allowed to stay in in the entire country of North Korea. It is located, conveniently, on a island, so guests do not have the opportunity to leave and roam freely around without a designated tour guide. All of the windows are front facing, and have a view of the best looking parts of Pyongyang. The rooms here are speculated to be bugged; hardly surprising from a country like this.



Military Presence Taking pictures of military personnel is totally and completely forbidden to tourists. But the soldiers seem to be absolutely everywhere. It seems that many of the men (and lots of women too) of the country are drafted into the North Korean military. Seeing as there is no current war in North Korea, we are not sure why there must be such a high military presence…unless it’s to keep the people aware that they are under constant watch.



Playing in the Street One of the first things we learn as children is not to go in the street. It’s a pretty good lesson, as there are many cars on the road that could hit you. However, in North Korea, things are very different. Because most people do not own cars, and even public transportation is scarce, there are almost no cars on the roads. Children can often be found playing in the middle of the street, as there is almost no apparent danger in doing so.



Unsafe Construction If you’re heart dropped when you got to this picture, don’t worry, we are right there with you. It might not come as a surprise that there are basically zero safety standards for construction projects. Here you can see that the poorly constructed scaffolds are tied to weak looking ropes, which could break at any moment. Even the men climbing the ropes are not secured with even a carabiner. You can probably guess that there also is no workers’ compensation in a place like this.



A Black Screen Ah, so the people of North Korea DO have access to computers, it might not be so bad after all. But wait…there doesn’t seem to be any electricity with which to actually turn the computer on. This, once again, is yet another facade put on by the leadership of North Korea to convince the rest of the world that they are doing just fine. Most likely, this was taken by a tourist, who was supposed to see that people were using computers. However, he was not supposed to see the screen.



Broken Down Bus Obviously the people of North Korea do not have the option of calling “AAA” when their vehicle breaks down. Instead, everyone inside of it must get out and push. The vehicles in this country are poorly maintained (if at all), and the pothole littered roads do not help the situation. Of course, a photo like this is totally illegal to take, since it shows just how dismal the transportation conditions are for even the military.



North Korean Sea World Of all the unnecessary things to have, this might take the cake. North Korea has its own type of Sea World, called Delphinium. However, it seems as though the majority of the civilians living in the country cannot afford to go, or maybe they aren’t allowed in at all. The audience is made up of mostly military personnel, with a few lucky members of the elite who get to enjoy the show. This seems like an odd thing to spend money on when most of the people do not have anything to eat.



Child Labour In contrast to the focused and strict education received by the children living in the city, children living in rural areas are uneducated and desolately poor. From the moment they can walk, these children begin to help their parents with whatever field work they need. Although it is illegal to photograph, a few brave tourists managed to capture the harsh reality of children as young as 2 or 3, working in very poor conditions, just so they can have something to eat.



Concentration Camps You might be wondering why the people of North Korea do not speak up against the regime to try. and regain their freedom. The answer: internment camps. The punishment for any sort of rule breaking, no matter how small, is a horrifying stint in the Gulag, a North Korean death camp mirroring those of the Nazi’s in World War II. Anyone accused will be sentenced, along with 3 generations of his family, even if they are innocent. The abuses committed here to prisoners are unspeakable.



Such Vivid Contrast Pictured here, you can see where North Korea and China are separated by the Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge. The contrast is unbelievably apparent. Of course, on the left, you see the underdeveloped country of North Korea, which looks especially sad next to its highly impressive, built up neighbor. Any and all trade that goes on between the two countries happens here. Many defectors try and escape via this route, and are often caught and thrown into concentration camps.

The Zoo For the privileged elite of Pyongyang, there are things to do for entertainment, other than praise the Supreme Leaders. This is the Central Zoo, where North Korean can go to see live animal exhibits, ride camels, and even go to a natural history museum full of exhibits with dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. There is even a section with a petting zoo where visitors can pet donkeys. This place seems to tip the scale a little bit in terms of the country’s treatment of its citizens.

Rights for Women This one might take you by surprise, but North Korea is essentially equal for men and women. In terms of jobs, military service, marriage/divorce right, and property ownership, there is no significant difference between the two sexes. North Korea has also made polygamy illegal, so that a man and a woman are equal in a relationship. You can even find many women in very high positions of power, although many of them are related to high ranking officials themselves.

Different Calendar Keeping with the trend of trying to be different from everyone else on the planet, North Korea has its own calendar called the Juche Calendar. The Juche Calendar actually starts with the birthday of the Supreme Leader and founder of the DRNK, Kim Il-Sung. The calendar technically starts in the year of 1912, the birth year of Kim Il-Sung, but was adopted for nation-wide use on 8 July 1997, which was the Leader’s third death anniversary. There are no “Juche” years before 1912, so they switch to the Gregorian Calendar for their history.



Little Soldiers Like with any tyrannical, fascist regime, one of the most effective tools that gives it power over the country is it’s children. Children are so easily persuaded to believe something, that it is almost effortless to get them to be 100% committed to the cause, no matter what is it. Pictured here is a mock military parade put on by very young schoolchildren, who most likely do not understand what they are doing or what those uniforms or tanks actually entail.



A Ghost City This is the Pyongyang skyline in the day time. Aside from the fact that there’s a gloomy overcast, it is more than clear that this city has seen better days. Tourists are mostly confined to the city limits of Pyongyang, as it’s the easiest to control what types of goings on they see there. Only the “upper class” locals get to live in the city. Despite the big, impressive buildings, they are mostly empty and without working electricity.

NK-Pop Here’s something that doesn’t quite go a long with the overall theme of oppression in the DPRK, and it’s called the Moranbong Band. Mirroring the style of a K-Pop girl’s group, the Moranbong Band is made up of young, pretty girls who were hand-picked by Kim Jong-Un. Their music combines a number of styles including pop, rock, and fusion. The girls have performed many times for the regime, and have performances in neighboring communist China.

7 Day Work Week Unlike most countries in the modern world, North Korea has a 6 day workweek, instead of 5. While this is definitely tough, it sounds almost doable…until you hear the second part of this. Along with a 6 day workweek, there is also a mandatory “volunteer” (how can it be volunteer if it’s mandatory?) day, where you are working, not because it’s a workday, but because you are volunteering your efforts to the fatherland. So basically, you are working everyday without a single break.



3 TV Stations Most of North Korea is extremely poor, so they likely do not own a television. In the elite capital of Pyongyang, however, many people can afford to have a television in their homes. This sounds like an okay deal, but unfortunately, there are only 3 television stations in North Korea; all of them government run propaganda-filled channels. Anyone caught tampering with the stations to get content outside of the 3 allowed channels is at risk for jail time or even death.



No Jeans Allowed Just to add onto the ever-growing list of ridiculous things North Koreans aren’t allowed to do, wearing jeans is a punishable offense. You will not find even one North Korean in possession of a pair of jeans. Why? Because jeans symbolize (according to them) the Western view of the Americans. Jeans aren’t the only victim of an overly-Western mindset for North Korea. Piercings are also illegal, as well as haircuts that are a bit too unique.

Different Time Zone We already know that North Korea has a different calendar than any other country in the world, but they also went as far to get their own time zone as well. While time zones typically different by a full hour from each other, North Korea went ahead and pushed themselves only 30 minutes forward. The purpose of this was to un-align themselves with the “Japanese Imperialists” and differentiate themselves from South Korea as well.

Not So Happy Residents In contrast to the smiling, happy people painted all over the country, the actual people living in North Korea (the ones who are not part of the staging, that is) look miserable. Unless they are aware that they are being watched by tourists, most people walk from place to place looking miserable. They are mostly silent, as they are afraid to speak because they know they are under constant surveillance. The conditions they are subjected to shows on their faces.

A Tourist Restaurant If you do manage to get a ticket into North Korea, you must be a part of a strictly managed tour. The tour goes to this restaurant for meals, as it gives off a vibe of normalcy. Here we see a waitress working at the restaurant, looking rather stressed out and not very happy to have foreigners in her midst. Catch the 24/7 North Korean propaganda playing on the television. North Koreans all have this playing in their homes and jobs; they cannot turn it off, they can only turn the volume down.



A North Korean Summer Camp That’s right, you can now send your children to summer camp in North Korea. Every summer, the Songdowon International Camp takes 400 children from all over the world (including from North Korea), to participate in a fun-filled camp experience. It does sound like a lot of fun, there are sports and swimming, along with trips and cuisine from different regions. There are many propaganda-laden activities snuck in there. All camp songs are about the Supreme Leaders.

Shorter People It might be because of genetics. Malnutrition and famine might also have a part to play in it. But one thing’s for sure, people in North Korea are, on average, 2 inches shorter than people in South Korea. Specifically, those born in the late 1950’s (when the Korean War was over, and they closed themselves off) began growing to be shorter than their southern neighbors. This seems like too much of a coincidence to be unrelated to their unfortunate conditions.

$8,000 Defecting Fee Although evidence would suggest the contrary, it is not technically illegal to defect from North Korea. It IS illegal, however, to defect from North Korea without paying the price to do so. Kim Jong-Un has raised the price to defect from the country to a whopping $8,000. While this might not sound like such a terrible price to pay to leave such a place, keep in mind that North Korea is desolately poor, and most people cannot afford to feed themselves even once a day. $8,000 is an impossible asking price.



Rigged Elections Before you go accusing North Korea of being a dictatorship, make sure you’re aware that they do actually hold elections. Every 5 years, North Korea holds a mandatory vote, where all of its citizens are required to take part in. Here’s the catch though: there is only on option of the voting ballot. Can you guess whose it is? That’s right, Kim Jong-Un is currently the only valid candidate the his people can vote for.

North Korean Basketball Believe it or not, North Korea (rather, Kim Jong-Un) loves basketball. They love it so much, that they changed up all the rules and made it their own. Some of these changes include: losing a point for a missed free throw, receiving 8 points instead of 3 for a field goal in the last three minutes of the game, and getting 4 points instead of 3 for a dunk that doesn’t touch the rim. Oh yeah, and Dennis Rodman is their coach.



A Fake City

This is Kijong-dong or Peace City, situated on the border of North and South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone. It is home to a 200-family collective farm, complete with a child care center, schools for all grades, and a hospital. That all sounds well and good, except for the fact that South Koreans have been observing this city and have come to realize it is completely inhabited. There is no electricity or even glass on the windows. There are only maintenance people keeping it looking “sharp”. This is Kijong-dong or Peace City, situated on the border of North and South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone. It is home to a 200-family collective farm, complete with a child care center, schools for all grades, and a hospital. That all sounds well and good, except for the fact that South Koreans have been observing this city and have come to realize it is completely inhabited. There is no electricity or even glass on the windows. There are only maintenance people keeping it looking “sharp”.



Depressing Architecture Much of the big city of Pyongyang consists of buildings like this. They were built decades ago and have not had any sort of renovations since. Most are structurally unsound and without working electricity or plumbing. In the spirit of all things “for show”, as North Korea likes to do, these buildings remain mostly empty, as there is no money for reconstruction. The regime does not care about its people, only its image, so reconstruction is not in the plan.



Marijuana is Legal This one might seem like it doesn’t belong, but marijuana is completely legal in North Korea. And we mean completely. There is no stigma about it at all, you can get it dirt cheap, and you can smoke wherever you please: outdoors, restaurants, in your home, wherever. Apparently, because it’s such a non-issue here, many guides will provide their tour groups with an endless supply of marijuana to smoke the entire time.

Largest Stadium in the World North Korea is home to the world’s largest stadium, the Rungrado 1st Of May Stadium. We know that’s a mouthful, but the stadium sits on the Rungrado Islet on the Taedong River, and commemorates the International Workers’ Day which is celebrated on May Day each year. The stadium holds a whopping 114,000 people, and takes up of 51 acres. The stadium is used for a few athletic events, but is mostly there to hold the Arirang Festival Games, a mass gymnastics and art festival held annually.



A City of Sadness This picture is very much forbidden, as the photographer took a huge risk taking it. From the train, you can see more very sad looking buildings (which are most likely to be completely empty), along with a row of shacks. There are people walking on the street, possibly to or from work (if they are employed at all). You can see that the infrastructure has not been maintained for years, and is dirty and falling apart.



School is Not Free If you live in the poor, rural parts of North Korea, you can basically forget about going to school and getting any sort of an education. However, if you are one of the elite living in Pyongyang, you will have the opportunity to go to school. It’s going to cost you though, and not just for tuition and lunch. Students who attend school are in charge of paying for everything from the heating and plumbing costs to the desks and chairs. Many parents pull their children out of school because they cannot afford the costs.



Human Fertilizer Ever since the end of the war, North Korea has cut itself off from all other countries, therefore cutting itself off from almost all imported goods, like chemical fertilizer. The regime now requires everyone to collect human feces to create fertilizer for the growing season. This has lead to actual “poop theft” to such an extent that people have begun locking up their outhouses to keep the feces there for themselves. Children are told to “hold it in” at school, so they could go at home for their families to collect it.



Kidnapped Producer Shin Sang-ok was a famous producer and directer of South Korean films, and his wife, Choi Eun-hee starred in many of them. The both of them were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and taken to North Korea by force. The regime wanted Shin Sang-ok to recreate his famous South Korean films, but with a North Korean propaganda flare to them. He and his wife ended up creating seven films, before nabbing the chance of escaping in Vienna at a film festival and seeking asylum at the US embassy.

A Curriculum of Brainwashing These are some of the school books given to the children of North Korea (if they are part of the lucky few who get some kind of education). You can see that these books are all riddled with propaganda about the regime, and much of the day consists of North Korean ideology stuck into “regular” classes. Children, from a young age, are taught that their Supreme Leaders are the most important thing to be educated on.



Even Taxis Are Discouraged Seeing as the majority of North Koreans do not have private vehicles, taxi cabs must be a necessity. There are taxis working in the capital city of Pyongyang, however they do not have much of a customer base, as most people walk to work and do not have the money to spend anyway. Also, since the roads are in such terrible condition, cab and bus drivers are discouraged from driving at all, since it is extremely dangerous.

Entry Point for Tourists This is where tourists enter the country from China. There are no locals to be seen here, other than the platform workers, who are dressed in uniform and are entirely too eager to help with the luggage. The station is immaculately clean, which gives even further evidence that there is typical nobody using it, other than planned foreign tour groups. North Koreans are not actually allowed to leave the country, so an exit station would be completely unnecessary.

An Empty Station This might look like a regular busy train station on a typical workday, but this whole thing is staged. Most of the time, this station is completely empty, and hardly any trains are actually running there. These people were brought, as actors, to show the tourists passing through just how functional North Korean commuting is. We’re pretty sure that the moment the tour passed, these people left as well to go back to their super secret lives.

An Empty Store This picture was taken very quickly, as it is of a store for locals (forbidden to tourists). You can see how empty the shop is, devoid of most items and with almost completely bare shelves. This store is an obvious indication of just how much the locals are suffering under this regime. This store is evidence of the economic slowdown (almost complete stop) and how, as usual, the consequences trickle down to affect mostly the local citizens.

Unimaginable Poverty When we think of poverty, we tend to focus on the individual people who are suffering n terrible conditions in some areas, and flourishing in others. But for North Korea, when you look at the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), it really gives you an all-inclusive projection of just how badly the country is doing. In 2014, the entire country’s GDP was $1,800. For some perspective, South Korea’s GDP per person that year was $37,900.

Choco Pies South Korea has an incredibly delicious treat, called a Choco Pie, which is basically some vanilla creme sandwiched in between two cookies and covered in chocolate. In 2016, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il decided that the treat was a little too delicious to support the lie that the South is poorer than the North. So he banned them. How did the South Koreans respond? By sending balloons full of Choco Pies over the border.



Nada Despite the fact that North Korea hates the United States more than any other country on the globe, they took a page out of the American book by implementing their own space program. Or, at least they tried to. Unfortunately for them, the decided to use the acronym “NADA”, which of course is Spanish for “nothing.” The name is pretty fitting, as the space program has accomplished absolutely nothing so far.

Indebted To Sweden In 1974, when Kim Il-sung managed to pull one over on Sweden. He “bought” 1,000 Volvo sedans from the Nordic country and brought them back to North Korea. However, he never paid for the vehicles. Sweden still, to this day, sends North Korea a payment reminder every 6-months, letting them know that they are still expecting their due payment, which is 300 million euros.

Poverty Visible From Space It’s no secret that North Korea is very poor, and with extreme poverty comes lack of basic human necessities, like food, running water, and electricity. Most houses in North Korea do not have working electricity at all, and the ones that do usually receive only a couple hours per day of light. This is especially obvious at night, when the power is shut down in almost the entire country, which is more than obvious from a birds-eye view at night.

Embassies Around The World Despite North Korea being completely isolated from the rest of the world, it does have embassies in 49 countries, including Mexico, Nepal, Sweden, Egypt, and Germany. There are also 50 countries with their own embassies operating from inside North Korea. These countries include Brazil, Nigeria, Romania, China, and the Uk. Pictured below is the North Korean embassy in West London.



The Supreme Leaders This is a common site to see in North Korea’s big city. On most buildings (homes, offices, government buildings, etc.) you will find some sort of reverence to the Supreme Leaders of the North Korean regime. This is all part of the brainwashing propaganda set down by the leaders of the country. People are lead to believe that the leaders have a “godly” status, and should there for be revered at all times, no matter where you are.



The Love Of Cognac Even though more than half the population is living in extreme poverty, that doesn’t seem to bother the Supreme Leaders enough to make them spend a little less money on personal pleasures. Kim Jung-il had a (not so secret) love for the drink, Cogmac. He loved it so much that he. would have $763,000 of it important into the country for his own consumption a year. Compare that to the $1,500 mean income of the average North Korean.



Tug-O-War In The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) on the border of North and South Korea, tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife. The North Korean soldiers who stand on their side of the border sometimes find themselves having to open the door on the South side. The soldiers will hold onto the North side door and then hold hands with each other, as to not be accidentally pulled onto the other side.



National Animal Just like any other country, North Korea has a national animal representing it. This animal is a fictional creature called a Chollima (coming from the Chinese word Qianlima, meaning talent and ability). There are a number of statues of this winged horse around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, and their football team is also named after this creature.



Afraid To Fly The late Kim Jong-il, who was supposed to be mightier than a god, was deathly afraid of flying. So what did he do? He had his loyal citizens build him 20 custom armored trains, complete with flat screens, bedrooms, conference rooms, and more. They built him 20 stations around the country, so he. could travel freely. They even airlifted lobster and cognac for him, in case he was traveling far from his comfortable home in the capital.



Air Koryo North Korea has only one airline that only flies to and from China, Russia, and Kuwait. The airline has been voted (4 years in a row now) worst airline in existence. People have complained of horrendous food, no safety standards, propaganda for in-flight entertainment, and not enough seats (passengers have been reported to be sitting on suitcases instead). Even the boarding passes are known to not list the flight’s destination.



Maternity Leave Here’s something that will shock you, coming from a country with severe human rights violations. North Korean women are entitled to paid maternity leave that puts the US to shame. In fact, they are entitled to 11 weeks of leave with full pay, paid breaks to nurse their children during work hours, a prohibition against working overtime or night shifts, and they are even entitled to be transferred to an easier line of work with the same pay.