Leaving Pyongyang: Photographer catches rare glimpse of life and architecture in North Korea's hinterland

2018-03-29T15:08:00-04:00

Leaving Pyongyang’s grand architecture, showcase avenues and spotless public spaces for the unvarnished reality of North Korea’s countryside is a sobering experience. Despite years of sanctions and increasing international isolation, Pyongyang looks wealthier in 2018 than I have ever seen it in 15 years of travel to the North. [...] But once the train rolls past the industrial belt around the capital, it’s a story of grinding poverty that clashes with the official image projected in Pyongyang.

Berlin-based travel writer Tom Masters gets the rare opportunity of a train ride from the bustling metropolis (by comparison) of Pyongyang through the northern backcountry of the secretive nation across the border to Vladivostok in Russia: "Every station along the way is almost identical, with two giant portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il hanging on its exterior, both smiling incongruously against the bleakness of their surroundings."

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Leaving Pyongyang: Photographer catches rare glimpse of life and architecture in North Korea's hinterland