Professor Andrei Lankov is a child of the former Soviet Union and one of few foreigners to have lived and studied inside the rogue kingdom of North Korea.

He has written a number of books about life in the North and he now lives in Seoul where he teaches at Kookmin University.

Professor Lankov is considered one of the world's top experts on North Korea.

With the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, ordering his military into a "wartime" state, Professor Lankov told Lateline what life is really like inside the kingdom.

Pyongyang is full of new money:

"People go to Pyongyang, they expect to see an embodiment of a Stalinist State. No, they see a capitalist city in a number of regards — expensive places where expensive brands are sold. A lot of cars, many more cars than ever and some of them are expensive European cars like BMWs, Porsche. And it's a very corrupt place. Officials have a big slice from this private economy. You have this new rich who are making money and doing quite well."

The "wartime state" is just another episode of a TV drama:

"Boring. Life as usual. It reminds me of a long TV drama. A soap opera. Episode 225: Mary again wants to leave Peter. Peter is upset. When the scenario writers are running out of ideas they just recycle old situations."

Those South Korean speakers are blaring the usual propaganda:

"Basically nothing special. You are a dictatorship, we are a democracy."

North Korea's nuclear program is circa 1940s:

"They have some short and mid-range missiles which are not particularly reliable. They don't have bombers. They have some old-style devices like the Americans and Russians used to in the late 1940s, early 1950s."

North Korea's population is no longer starving:

"Last year was probably the first year in say 30 years they produced enough food to feed their population. Because quietly, without making any noises, the current government is switching to a system very similar with China of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Farmers are now given a share of the harvest. They used to be essentially slaves."

Economic growth is around 1.5 to 2 per cent:

"You have a growing private economy — [the] black market which is not really black because the government deliberately turns a blind eye and to some extent support private economy. If you want to run a big private business, you have to register as if it's a State property, but there are private mines in North Korea, and the economy's growing."

Kim Jong-un takes political control seriously: