North Korea: dark images show snapshots of daily life in the closed world
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In recent years, photographers have captured daily life in North Korea.
The images give a rare preview of the nation completely isolated.
Many are dark, while others seem to have been taken anywhere.
It is always rare that the outside world has a glimpse of daily life in North Korea. The country only recently allowed Western tourists by following the COVVI-19 pandemic, and sometimes photographers find it difficult to go to certain places.
Last year, an AFP photographer captured rare images showing daily life in North Korea.
Pedro Pardo took photos of a far from the border of North Korea in the Chinese province of Jilin. The images offer a dark but fascinating look at life in a country wrapped in secrets.
Recent images that other photographers have taken in Pyongyang, the country’s capital, seem almost to be able to come from any city. They show people who walk in the streets or celebrate the new year, but there are often large panels displaying propaganda in the background.
North Korea was founded in 1948 under Kim Il Sung as a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, inspired by strict Marxist-Leninist principles.
Its population of approximately 26 million people lives largely in isolation of the rest of the world in the austere communist state, prevented from going abroad without the authorization of the government and subject to media managed by the state which release the propaganda praising the nation and its supreme leader, Kim Jong one.
The self-imposed isolation of North Korea is largely because of its principal principle of “juche” or self-sufficiency, the idea that it should be able to function completely independently and remain separated from the rest of the world.
In practice, it failed to stifle the country’s economy and trade, and many of its citizens are faced with high levels of poverty and serious food shortages. The CIA says that the country “remains one of the most isolated in the world and one of the poorest in Asia”.
The Guardian reported last year that since the 1950s, around 31,000 North Koreans had sought to escape and defected in South Korea. The number jumped in 2023 in the middle of what the Ministry of Unification in Seoul called “the worsening of conditions in North Korea”.
The photos have a unique overview of these conditions and life in one of the last communist states in the world.
A sign indicates “the big comrade of leader Kim Jong he will always be with us” in Pyongyang, the capital of the country.
People get out of the Pyongyang N ° 1 department store near a celebration poster marking Kim Jong’s birthday in 2025.
Kim won Jin / AFP via Getty Images
A speaker for emissions is visible in Kaepoong, which South Korea considers a village of propaganda.
A speaker in Kaepoong near the demilitarized area in 2024.
Kim Hong-ji / Reuters
Buildings seem to need repair in Kaesong.
A person walking in a field outside Kaesong through the demilitarized area in 2024.
Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images
An art exhibition for Kim Jong’s birthday is full of family paintings.
People visit an art exhibition to celebrate Kim Jong in 2025.
Kim won Jin / AFP via Getty Images
People walk along a street in Pyongyang.
People walk along a street in the region near the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang in 2025.
Kim won Jin / AFP via Getty Images
North Korean soldiers work on the border near China.
North Korean soldiers, seen from Tumen, China, in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
The North Korean city of Hyesan is seen from China.
Hyesan, North Korea, seen from China in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
A train car pulls a wagon in the North Korean city of Namyang.
Namyang, North Korea, seen from the city of Tumen, in northeast China, in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
A sign on a hill in the city of Chunggang can be read as follows: “My country is the best.”
The North Korean city of Chunggang, seen from Linjiang in China in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
A watchtower is inhabited on the Hyesan border.
North Korean village of Hyesan, seen from Changba, in China, in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
Portraits of the former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong they are seen in Chunggang.
Houses in Chunggang, North Korea, seen from the city of Linjiang in China in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
The great portraits of former leaders are presented on a government building in Namyang.
A building in Namyang, North Korea, seen from the Chinese city of Tumen in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
North Koreans work in an area.
A view of Northern Korea of Tumen in the Chinese province in northeast Jilin in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
A panel in Chunggang reads as follows: “Unify the party and all of society with the revolutionary ideas of the comrade Kim Jong Un!”
Chunggang, North Korean, seen from the Chinese border city of Linjiang in 2024.
Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images
The trucks cross a border bridge connecting Changbai, China and Hyesan, in North Korea.
The Border Bridge which links the Chinese city of Changbai to Hyesan, North Korean in 2024.