One of the best-known photos of North Korea is a nighttime satellite image that shows the country cloaked almost entirely in darkness. Next to it is a brightly illuminated South Korea.

It’s possibly the clearest evidence that the direction North Korea’s leaders have taken the country in has led to economic ruin and deprived its people of first-world living standards enjoyed in South Korea.

You’d think it’d be highly embarrassing for the Pyongyang regime, which repeatedly claims through its state media that it is leading the nation to economic prosperity. But then you’d be underestimating the willingness of the state propaganda machine to try to spin a negative into a positive.

A recent editorial in North Korea’s main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, makes a rare reference to the photo and offers two thoughts about it: (1) let’s not get too hung up about having a functioning electrical grid, and (2) the photo actually represents the future of the U.S.

The editorial is titled “Right in Front of Our Eyes.” It’s a standard hyperbolic North Korean screed, exhorting citizens to follow the dictates of the leadership to build a great nation. The title makes reference to what the editorial says is a quote from Kim Jong Un: “Happiness is right in front of our eyes.”