It’s easy to simplify the complexity of everyday life in North Korea. Coverage of the country is often mired in cliché, and often disinformation and speculation, leaving most people with a warped and simplistic understanding of the lives of the people of one of the world’s most closed off and troubled nations.

Much of this is due to the fact that consistent information about the country is hard to come to by – the product of its secretive and repressive government – and so often seen through the lens of political and ideological biases. There’s also the issue that North Koreans are rarely given the platforms they need, and their voices are drowned out by the opinions of pundits and the press.