Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/PEDRO PARDO
Topics: World News, Travel, Kim Jong-un, North Korea
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: World News, Travel, Kim Jong-un, North Korea
North Korea isn't exactly the easiest country to get into and experience, so these rare images of life in the secretive state are particularly fascinating.
While traveling and holidaying abroad might be a regular occurrences for people from countries all over the world, this isn't true of North Korean citizens.
On the flipside of things, getting into the country can be notoriously difficult.
The country, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, it has been under the rule of The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since it was created in 1948.
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The nation - ran by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un - has built up a reputation of being difficult to get into for decades, but around the time of the pandemic, this became even more of a struggle. However, there are a few select people who have managed to get into the country in recent years and document what it was like over there.
But don't think if you are allowed entry into the country you can do as you wish. Oh no, there are a whole host of rules that must be followed.
In addition to this, certain acts that do not show the country in the best light are outright illegal.
For example, people allowed into the country could only take pictures of public tourist landmarks and sights - in fact, if they took a photo of anything else they could be thrown in jail.
Photographer Pedro Pardo visited the Chinese and North Korean border to take some snaps of what life is really like in the state-run country.
The stealthy snapper gained access to the border in China's Jilin province to take pictures of the controversial nation - with them dating between February 26 and March 1 of 2024.
The pictures portray what life is really like, as one picture depicts the town of Chunggang and shows dozens of houses that look exactly the same.
Meanwhile, there is a huge sign facing towards China, which is believed to translate to 'My country is the best!'.
In another picture, which Pardo snapped from Tumen in China, North Korean soldiers are seen working on the border - as well as a government building in the town of Namyang.
He also managed to take a picture of a watchtower in North Korea's city of Hyesan - which depicts a soldier wearing a face mask spotting him, and what appears to be a dummy looking out the window of the structure.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea has been using 'expanded fences, guard posts, strict enforcement, and new rules, including a standing order for border guards to shoot on sight', a bleak new report from the Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed in March last year.
The report was titled 'A Sense of Terror, Stronger than a Bullet: The Closing of North Korea 2018–2023'.
HRW analyzed satellite images of the country's borders and found that between 2020 and 2023, North Korea had built a total 482km of new fencing in the areas and enhanced another 260km of primary fencing that had existed before.