North Korea Unveiled: A Look Beyond the Headlines

If you point a camera at Earth from 600 kilometers above, it’s pretty mesmerizing, isn’t it? The swirling clouds, the vast oceans, the illuminated continents. But direct that same camera at the Korean Peninsula, and you’ll see something quite different. South Korea is a blaze of light, a testament to its vibrant, bustling society. North Korea, however, is almost totally dark, a void save for a tiny pinprick of light marking its capital, Pyongyang. This stark contrast, this black void, tells a story. It hints at how 25 million people live in this secretive kingdom. But as the sun rises, we begin to fill in the details, to see more than just the darkness. We start to glimpse cities designed for control, an unfathomable number of military installations, and barriers meant to keep people in. I’ve been poring over every inch of the satellite map, talking to experts who’ve analyzed it for decades, and honestly, I’m starting to see North Korea in a totally different way. We’ve often been exposed to a very specific version of this country, and while that doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate, it’s certainly just one version. Today, I want to show you a deeper, perhaps more nuanced, perspective. The map can’t tell us everything, of course, but it can certainly fill in some blanks in our understanding of this most secretive kingdom in our world. So, buckle up.

The Fortress Nation: Military and Control

First things first, North Korea, despite its often grim portrayal, is a beautiful country. It’s home to vast mountains and rugged hills, teeming with rare animals. This includes a huge mountain range, within which sits the sacred volcano, Mount Paektu. It’s a place where legends say their great leader, Kim Jong-il, was born. Interestingly, half of Mount Paektu actually lies on the Chinese side of the border. North Korea itself can get incredibly cold and snowy, and it’s home to between 20 and 30 million people, about half the population of South Korea. The division of these two Koreas, and the subsequent flattening of what is now North Korea, was a direct result of the war in the 1950s.

Today, North Korea is, in many ways, built around a few major cities. Some have ports, others are nestled up against the Chinese border, and then there’s Pyongyang, the river city and the capital. A lot of this infrastructure had to be redesigned from scratch because the country was utterly destroyed in the Korean War. The country’s very design, it seems, is deeply intertwined with its communist ideology, often conceptualized as a human body. The “great leader” is seen as the brain, his single-party government acts as the nervous system, connecting his will to the masses. And the masses? They’re the bones and muscle, the ones who carry out the work of building this nation. The entire country is supposed to function as one, serving the will of the brain, the great leader. And what I’m seeing is that this kind of body configuration allows them to do some pretty unique, and frankly, unsettling things.

Take their military, for example. Most countries spend maybe 1% to 4% of their GDP on defense. North Korea? They spend a staggering 20% to 25% of their GDP on their military. And we’ve got the data to show what that looks like. It’s like a fortress. You can see a lot of this concentration down on their southern border, the DMZ. This Demilitarized Zone is technically a four-kilometer-thick border where no military stuff is supposed to be. That is, if you don’t count the thousands of landmines left over from the Korean War, which North Korea continues to plant. But in terms of actual weapons, most of it sits right on the border of the DMZ, where North Korea has 900 artillery guns aimed directly at Seoul, South Korea’s capital. In the event of a conflict, these guns could fire 10,000 rounds a minute, making good on their frequent promise to turn South Korea into a “sea of fire.” Now, it’s worth a reminder, it’s not just North Korea; if we were mapping American or South Korean military assets, you’d see plenty on the southern side too. But our focus here is North Korea.

Beyond the border, the country is riddled with underground bunkers, missile launch sites, nuclear reactors, air strips, and naval bases. You’ve got thousands of observation posts, 300 checkpoints and roadblocks, and tons of military facilities supporting their soldiers. And then, there are the tunnels. North Korea is covered with these things, and these are just the ones we know of. One explanation for these tunnels dates back to the Korean War, when the country was basically flattened by American bombs. A huge part of the North Korean psyche is this almost paranoid fear of air power. They’ve designed their defense strategy to be ready if that ever happens again. They have countless fortified bases and tunnels, some for weapons storage, and some, chillingly, for invasion. Down on the DMZ, they secretly dug kilometers-long tunnels that go right under the border, designed to move troops into South Korea very quickly. I’ve heard stories of people actually going into one of these discovered tunnels.

These tunnels, and the military itself, also serve another purpose: protecting one family. In the capital, you’ll find barracks housing some of the 100,000 bodyguards dedicated to protecting the Kim family. There’s a particular hill that acts like a giant bunker, home to numerous military installations, some deep underground, many connected through tunnels. This is one of the many escape plans the Kim family has in case of an attack; they can escape on an armored train or in one of the helicopters stored inside this hill. There are even rumors of another huge tunnel system on the northern border that would allow the Kim family to sneak into China if needed. The sheer amount of effort put into the security infrastructure for the Kims themselves, versus, say, helping out your average person, is truly staggering.

But it’s not all underground. The country is littered with 1,500 guns and missiles designed to shoot down aircraft. A third of those, by the way, are concentrated around Pyongyang. Some of these look pretty funky from above, sitting in the middle of a field. Their Air Force is one of their larger military branches, and their Navy boasts a number of submarines, though experts debate how many are truly operable. In a recent video on submarines, it was calculated that at least 36 operable submarines might be hanging out in bases like this. Their missile sites, rockets, and nuclear weapons are a huge deal for this regime, especially under the most recent leader, who has really ramped up the testing of all this. These missiles have various ranges, but the longest ones can travel 12,000 kilometers, putting a lot of the world, including the United States, within range. Many are stored and launched from mountain bases. Lately, they’ve also been trying to send non-weapons into space. This launchpad is where, over the last couple of years, they’ve attempted to put satellites into orbit. Only about 11 or 12 countries worldwide have ever successfully put a satellite in orbit.

The military is absolutely core to keeping the Kim family in power, which is why they often show it off. They even have a replica of Kim Il-sung Square, the big central square where soldiers practice, so experts know when a parade is coming. The military is used as propaganda, as actual defense, and often, to build things. With one of the largest militaries in the world—over a million active duty personnel—they can command this force to undertake all sorts of projects, including massive construction.

• Military Spending: North Korea spends 20-25% of its GDP on military, compared to 1-4% for most countries.
• DMZ Fortifications: Heavily militarized border with South Korea, including thousands of landmines and 900 artillery guns aimed at Seoul.
• Underground Infrastructure: Extensive network of bunkers and tunnels for defense, weapons storage, and potential invasion routes, stemming from Korean War paranoia.
• Kim Family Protection: A dedicated 100,000-strong bodyguard force, elaborate bunkers, and escape routes (armored trains, helicopters) for the Kim family.
• Air Defense & Naval Power: 1,500 anti-aircraft guns/missiles (a third in Pyongyang), a large Air Force, and an estimated 36 operable submarines.
• Missile & Nuclear Program: Ramped-up testing of missiles with ranges up to 12,000 km, capable of reaching the U.S.
• Satellite Launches: Efforts to launch non-weapon satellites into orbit, a feat achieved by only a handful of countries.
• Military’s Role: Functions as propaganda, national defense, and a labor force for construction projects.

Barriers and Borders: Controlling Movement and Information

One thing you’ll see a lot of in North Korea is fences. And not necessarily just to keep people from coming in, but more so to keep people from going out. They’ve spent years building a fence around the entire perimeter of the country, at least 1,400 kilometers bordering China alone. You can see all the security outposts. This fencing goes through all kinds of terrain, even dug into the beach. A lot of this was built recently, as more and more people have been trying to escape.

And then, within the country itself, there are barriers that control people’s movement. The country has checkpoints at province borders to ensure people aren’t moving around without permission. So, while a lot of people can’t get out of North Korea, some can. In fact, there’s a whole network of North Korean IT professionals, engineers, who interview for Western tech jobs, get hired, and then pass money and information back to the North Korean regime, all without their employer knowing it. It’s a big, juicy rabbit hole that has been explored in depth by others, revealing an incredibly wild story of IT espionage and money funneling.

Now, a lot of this stuff—the military, the missiles, the control—probably isn’t that surprising. It’s the kind of thing we see on the news, the stuff that gets covered a lot. But I want to get to the part of this country that really led me to this video in the first place: the stuff we don’t see very often. I want to expand our understanding of what it’s truly like to live in North Korea. What is life like in these cities, out in the rural areas? How do they make things? Where do they get their food, entertainment, and community? It turns out that between defector testimony, state news, and the satellite map, you can actually learn a lot about this.

• Perimeter Fences: Extensive fencing, especially along the 1,400 km Chinese border, built to prevent people from leaving.
• Internal Checkpoints: Barriers and checkpoints between provinces control citizens’ movement within the country.
• IT Espionage: A network of North Korean IT professionals reportedly takes Western tech jobs to funnel money and information back to the regime.

Cities of Control: Urban Design and Daily Life

Many North Korean cities were designed from scratch after being turned into rubble during the Korean War. Because of that, they possess a very unique design, one meant to fulfill specific objectives in line with North Korean ideals: controlling people, unifying them, and continuously celebrating their leaders and the struggle of their “continuous revolution.” Many of us have seen the capital, but let’s look at some of these other cities first. A lot of North Korean cities are built around a big central square, often with hand-drawn-looking circles. This square acts as the city’s heart, framed by massive boulevards. You’ll quickly notice that these boulevards are pretty empty; you see far more buses than private cars. Oh, and every once in a while, you might spot a mosque or a Christian church. From what I can tell, these religious buildings are mostly there for optics, to project an image of religious freedom, though religion isn’t widely practiced in North Korea for obvious reasons.

These empty boulevards and squares often lead to grand spaces, punctuated by some kind of monument. We can even go back in time using historical imagery to see these huge, often empty boulevards. When you do see people, they are often in huge groups, lined up in near-perfect geometry on a square. It seems that when there are people, there are a lot of them, and they’re very close together, but often, these spaces are just empty.

Every major city boasts a stadium. Some are in a bit of bad shape, but some are really nice. Sports are a big deal in North Korea, and they do very well in certain popular sports, hitting, you might say, above their weight. However, defectors have reported that stadiums like one in particular have been used for public executions or public shamings. Public punishment is a big part of the control regime in North Korea, used to keep people in line.

Recently, the government declared that every city needs to have one of these: traffic parks. There are around 170 of these new parks, and they’re very important to North Korean cities. Remember all those empty streets? Most people don’t own cars in North Korea; they rely on buses. But that’s starting to change a bit. There’s even a car company that puts together kit cars and sells them in North Korea, one of the few companies that actually advertises. This has led to more traffic in residential areas and, sadly, more accidents for kids not used to dealing with cars. So, these traffic parks were an initiative to teach kids the rules of traffic, promoting public safety for children.

These are some of the design patterns and common ingredients in North Korean cities. But let me show you some specific examples, because as we do that, you start to see how this country, and its economy, truly works.

• Designed for Control: Cities are planned to control, unify, and celebrate leaders.
• Central Squares & Boulevards: Cities feature large, often empty central squares and grand boulevards.
• Public Spaces: Often punctuated by monuments, used for large group gatherings.
• Stadiums: Present in major cities, some used for public executions/shamings as part of the control regime.
• Traffic Parks: New initiative to teach children traffic rules due to increasing car ownership (kit cars).

Economic Hubs and Hidden Realities: Specific City Insights

Let’s look at Hamhung, one of North Korea’s bigger cities. You’ve got your standard big, empty squares with statues of the leaders, but this is actually a major economic hub for chemicals. There’s an area some experts believe is a chemical facility where they store stuff underground—remember how they love to put everything underground for protection? These little white dots on the map might represent buried chemical weapons or other sensitive chemicals they don’t want the world to know about. You’ll see big industrial facilities here, making a lot of chemicals like fertilizer and pesticides. Hamhung is also home to a pretty wild-looking amusement park with some bizarre slides. I’ve never seen it full of people, even on a summer weekday. But I want to show you one particular factory here, a really important building: it’s where they make vinylon. Vinylon is a fabric you can make not with wool or cotton, but with coal and limestone, which North Korea has in abundance. As part of their push for self-reliance, North Korea produces this synthetic material. They use it for uniforms, a lot of clothing, curtains—it’s their national fabric, really tough, scratchy, and durable. This is their biggest vinylon factory, so important that the leader himself attended its reopening after renovation. Since vinylon is made with coal, they mine a lot of coal. If you zoom into the port in Hamhung, you’ll see gnarly yellow pollution, but also ships laden with coal, getting ready to be shipped out, mostly to China, potentially violating sanctions.

Now, let’s go to another city, up north, right in the shadow of Mount Paektu. This is a nice-looking city, home to an ice rink, a ski hill, and of course, the required children’s traffic park. This was a big construction project for Kim Jong-un, meant to show the world that North Korea is open for tourism, especially near their “Holy Mountain.” And this thing went up really fast. There’s evidence that to achieve such speed, they used a “youth construction brigade”—young people doing construction labor for 10 to 12 hours a day to show loyalty to the party and potentially move up in the social ranks. This district was pretty much empty before construction began, and within a year or two, all of this was built. We don’t know much about the construction standards, but they certainly build fast. Though, whether it’s good quality stuff is another question; I’ve seen videos of some houses in the mountains with ice on the inside of the windows.

Let’s move to Chongjin, a port city on the east coast. You’ve got some gnarly industrial stuff going on here, home to very cookie-cutter looking homes. They produce textiles, rubber, steel, and build trains. They’ve got a big power plant, and out in the water, you can see a lot of shipping coming in and out of the country. Not a lot compared to most countries, but you’ll see vessels, coal, and minerals being shipped out. A lot of mining happens here, which, as we’ll see, is often the work of political prisoners. Some of this area just looks like a wasteland, but that’s industry for you. All that steel production happens right next to tightly packed, endless homes. You’ve got your required empty boulevard, a traffic park, and a train station. Their big central square here is really ornately designed. This entire area was built very recently, around 2020.

If you look at the big blue roofs in Chongjin, you’ll see something you wouldn’t expect in North Korea: a market. Thousands of vendors buy and sell things all day here, in this socialist, communist, anti-capitalist utopia. The story is that back in the 1990s, when the Soviet Union fell, North Korea was hit incredibly hard due to its reliance on Soviet aid. Mass famine spread throughout the country, hitting this region particularly deep. This gave rise to a resourceful black market: homemade goods, smuggled goods, bartering, and trading. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, died during this famine, and the black market became the only way many people survived, and still survive today. In 2008, the government tried to crack down on this, as it’s very anti-North Korean to allow people to buy, sell, and smuggle. But the mostly women merchants in this city protested, marching to the city government office in a big confrontation. They essentially said, “We won’t be able to live if you cut us off.” This marked a turning point, and the underground economy has become somewhat tolerated under Kim Jong-un. Today, the government continues to allow these illicit markets. This one with the blue roof is a big example, but it’s not the only one; these markets are now all over the country.

A lot of people get their goods from this black/gray informal market, which has grown into a massive network of trafficking stuff, usually from China and almost always illegally. Individual smugglers bring goods across the river dividing North Korea and China. Sometimes, trading companies will sneak in extra items in the back of their trucks. In the famine days, it was just essentials like rice and corn, but over time, it became a more sophisticated private market. Today, you can get all kinds of cheap Chinese products. China, being the manufacturing powerhouse it is, is right next door, and a lot of ships and trucks move between the two countries, serving as arteries for this black market. These goods end up in markets like one in Pyongyang.

This informal market system reveals two crucial things about North Korea. Number one, its very survival is thanks to the presence of China. China, this massive, rapidly developing manufacturer, is a lifeline for North Korea, both in formal trade and the informal black market. And second, it confirms just how much the centrally planned communist government does not work to allocate goods and services to the people. This country would not be able to survive without the black market. So, in addition to China, the black market is the only way many North Koreans survive. However, this is risky. The regime only works because it controls every aspect of people’s lives, and these black markets relinquish some of that control. So, every once in a while, they crack down, breaking up markets and extracting fees to ensure things don’t get “too out of control.”

• Hamhung: Chemical industry hub (fertilizer, pesticides), potential underground chemical storage, amusement park, and the largest vinylon factory (synthetic fabric from coal/limestone, national fabric). Also a coal shipping port.
• Samjiyon: Tourism-focused city near Mount Paektu, featuring an ice rink, ski hill, and children’s traffic park. Rapid construction often utilizes “youth construction brigades” for loyalty and social mobility.
• Chongjin: Port city with diverse industries (textiles, rubber, steel, trains, power plant), cookie-cutter homes, and a significant black market that emerged during the 1990s famine.
• Black Markets: Widespread informal markets provide essential goods and Chinese products, vital for survival due to the failing centrally planned economy. These markets are often illegal but tolerated, with periodic crackdowns.
• China’s Role: China is a crucial lifeline for North Korea through both formal trade and the informal black market.

The Darker Side: Prison Camps and Elite Life

One other thing you see in Chongjin, up in the valley, is a prison camp. Prison camps always seem to have economic activity attached to them. Further up the valley, there’s a re-education camp, deep in the valley, for anyone showing disloyalty to the regime. This particular one is for just over a thousand men who don’t live in the officials’ homes; they live within these walls and spend their time mining copper and iron, cutting logs, making bricks, and farming.

This brings us to the broader topic of prison camps. The ones we just saw in the city are numerous. Some are typical prisons, others are re-education camps. But there are much bigger ones, nestled deep in the mountains, representing what I see as the most egregious version of North Korea’s many human rights abuses. What’s happening inside these facilities is some of the worst stuff we can imagine; it’s pretty upsetting. I won’t go into super detail, but let me just show you where these four major prison camps are, what they contain, and who gets sent there.

You can be sent to a prison camp for almost anything: showing rebellion or disrespect to the party or the leader, or if you’re a public official who messed something up. Just being accused of “wrong thinking” can land you there. And it’s not just you and your family; it’s also your children and your grandchildren who aren’t even born yet. The system detains multiple generations of someone they’ve deemed a political prisoner. Officially, none of this exists; North Korea laughably claims they have no such political prison system. But here they are. There are actually around 700 penal facilities, ranging from short-term detention sites where you might be for a weekend, to massive, 50,000-person concentration camp-style sites. They have names like Camp 14 and Camp 11, often on huge tracts of land deep in the mountains. You’ll see guard posts and fences, sometimes subtly cut into the forest.

Within these camps, it’s not just adults; there are many children, some born in the camp, knowing nothing different. And what you’ll find inside is a lot of economic, productive activity being done through forced, hard labor. You’ve got coal mines, vast farmlands, livestock, even a distillery. There’s a factory, and a school, probably for the guards’ children. The children in these camps are made to work from the time they are four to six years old, with work hours of 10 to 12 hours long for everyone—unpaid, forced prison labor. The conditions are horrific; people are on the verge of starving and often have to fight for resources. But you’ll also notice that even within these prison camps, it feels like a mini North Korean city, a microcosm. You’ll find a central square with a monument, murals of the great leaders, indoctrination centers, and a school. These big camps can house up to 20,000 people. Most who enter these prison camps never leave; those born here will never leave. These are life sentences, rooted in the old Soviet days, where so much control was wrought from the mere threat of this system. The UN has called it a human rights abuse with “no parallel in modern times.” It’s a level of control and deprivation that doesn’t really exist anywhere close to this degree. Twenty-odd million people are basically prisoners to a system they can’t change. This is like a condensed version of that, a prison within a prison.

To starkly contrast the prison camps, let’s go to Wonsan, where I found one of Kim Jong-un’s palaces. This is what Kim Jong-un does with the power he’s extracted from his people. Wonsan has your empty square with circles, a port, and an international children’s camp where kids from around the world supposedly come for North Korean fun and sport. And right here, next to it, is the Kim family compound. It’s right on the beach, with a private beach and all kinds of security barriers. It has massive structures, a big yard, a shooting range, and, of course, a railroad right next to it, just in case the guy has to scurry away in an invasion. He always has an escape plan. So, while 100,000 North Koreans are imprisoned up in the mountains, Kim Jong-un has his residence on the beach. I’ve known North Korea is crazy, but to see the prison camps and then to see this is just, well, it’s fairly sickening to me.

• Prison Camps: Exist in cities and mountains, ranging from typical prisons to large re-education/concentration camps (e.g., Camp 14, Camp 11).
• Reasons for Imprisonment: Anything from showing disloyalty to “wrong thinking,” affecting multiple generations of a family.
• Forced Labor: Inmates, including children (from 4-6 years old, 10-12 hour days, unpaid), engage in mining, farming, logging, and manufacturing.
• Conditions: Horrific, with starvation and deprivation; many are life sentences.
• Miniature Cities: Large camps resemble miniature North Korean cities with central squares, monuments, and indoctrination centers.
• Elite Lifestyle: Contrasted with prison camps, Kim Jong-un’s palace in Wonsan features a private beach, extensive security, and multiple escape routes.

Rural Life and the Capital: Planned Existence and Pyongyang’s Paradox

When you’re out in rural North Korea, you stumble upon a few peculiar things. You might see what looks like an anti-aircraft battery, a military installation, in red earth. Then there are these eerily symmetrical housing blocks, peculiar in their uniformity, found almost everywhere in rural areas, often built next to a farm. I’ve never seen villages quite like this anywhere else from the sky; they’re so clearly deeply planned. This, I’m learning, is how a lot of stuff gets made in rural North Korea. A lot of the farming, for instance, is tied directly to these identical houses. All these houses are part of a factory, like a fruit processing factory way out in rural North Korea, and all the homes belong to the people who work there. Many are duplexes, with two families living in one, sharing a small backyard plot. You are assigned a job here, and you work here your whole life. You won’t see cars anywhere on these roads; private ownership of vehicles isn’t really a thing, so there’s no need for parking spaces. You’re living and working in the exact same place. You might see people biking or walking.

Another sight in rural areas are vast complexes of greenhouses. Kim Jong-un has been going nuts building as many as he can. One such complex was even an airport for some reason, but over time, it was converted into a massive greenhouse complex. Kim Jong-un has been pushing this, and they build stuff fast. This demonstrates one way North Korea functions: by simply assigning people jobs and having them live and work in the exact same place. It’s truly mesmerizing to look at the configuration of housing in rural North Korea.

But now, we have to talk about the capital, Pyongyang. I know everyone’s always interested in the capital; it gets so much coverage, and I’ve been holding off because I’m more interested in these rural “backwaters.” But to understand Pyongyang, you have to grasp the concept of Songbun. This is basically North Korea’s caste system, how they subdivide the people. Once you’re in one class, you’re in it, and your kids are in it too. You might move up or down, but it’s rare. If your grandpa was supportive of the Japanese or wasn’t super loyal during the revolution, you’re part of the “hostile class”—not to be trusted, not loyal, getting the worst jobs, opportunities, and punishments. The “wavering class” is the middle ground, more trusted, but still on thin ice. They get more opportunities, better healthcare, schools, and food. But the “core class”—those are the top dogs, party officials, the elites. And those are the people who live in Pyongyang. They live in a completely different world than the rest of the country.

The capital itself is a wild-looking place on Google Earth. They’ve even put 3D renderings of the big, super-wild hotel at the center of town, which looks awesome but is reportedly totally empty—just a big piece of propaganda. Part of the reason these high-rises might be empty is that electricity is so flaky in North Korea. If you’re on the 30th floor and the power goes out, you’re walking 30 flights of stairs. So, the most desirable apartments, according to experts, are actually on the bottom floors.

Pyongyang has its big old stadiums, monuments, grand boulevards, and lots of buses—so much transportation happens on buses. As you roll around, you see a lot of peculiar architecture, a throwback to the Soviet era, with cities laid out on a template, brutalist buildings, and rows of apartments with no real suburban landscape. Many theme parks are empty, with empty parking lots all the time. It’s like a snapshot in time, so we don’t truly know, but I’ve never seen anyone in them, though promo videos for the water park show people. A lot of this stuff, you start to realize, is built to show the outside world that North Korea “can do this,” and to show fellow North Koreans the same. It’s a massive part of construction in this country; it’s less about serving the broader people and more about telling a story.

Sports are a huge part of North Korean culture. Kim Jong-un has his signature buildings, like his curvy apartment buildings, each leader having a different architectural style. You’ll also see random churches in Pyongyang, like an Eastern Orthodox church built for their “good friend Russia” (Vladimir Putin, perhaps?). There’s also a Protestant one, restored because the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, had a Protestant mother who was a deacon there. It’s meant to symbolize that North Korea believes in freedom of religion, but to be clear, religion isn’t widely practiced for obvious reasons.

What I love about Pyongyang is how it takes the whole “big boulevard, grand streets that are empty” concept to a whole new level. The former palace of the great leader, now a museum, has this big, grand, empty square leading off it, which connects to a grand boulevard that is just so grand and so empty. It goes through a big, beautiful roundabout, through a tunnel, to another big, beautiful, mostly empty roundabout. You might spot a single car. Then it enters this massive, grand urban design you’d expect in a bustling city like Mexico City—ten lanes going into a grand intersection for the four cars that are there. It’s mesmerizing to look at.

The leaders don’t live in that old palace anymore. Kim Jong-un lives up in a big compound on a hill, his main residence in the city. Satellite data suggests potential underground entrances to these heavily secured compounds and bunkers. Given how much these folks like to dig, you can imagine there are tunnels and bunkers behind his house, though we don’t *know* that. Interestingly, someone once put a “concentration center” label on Google Maps right over the hill from Kim Jong-un’s house. Experts, however, clarified that it’s likely a barracks for his bodyguards. So, don’t believe everything you see on Google Maps, folks. Pyongyang is a place that can look fairly developed and nice in some views because this is where the elite, the “core class,” live. This is where the output from all the horrific abuse and slavery happening out in the countryside comes to benefit. It’s the center of power for the regime. And something you can’t see on the map but in tourist videos is their very deep underground train system—a subway that looks very nice.

• Rural Planning: Symmetrical housing blocks often built next to specific factories (e.g., fruit processing), where residents are assigned jobs and live/work in the same place (no private cars).
• Greenhouse Initiatives: Large-scale greenhouse complexes built rapidly under Kim Jong-un’s direction.
• Pyongyang (Capital):
  • Songbun System: A caste system (hostile, wavering, core class) determines social standing and opportunities; the elite “core class” resides in Pyongyang.
  • Architecture: Features grand, often empty boulevards, Soviet-era brutalist designs, and modern, curvy apartment buildings.
  • Infrastructure Paradox: High-rises are undesirable due to unreliable electricity, making lower-floor apartments more sought after.
  • Propaganda Construction: Many grand buildings and facilities are built for external display and internal ideological reinforcement, rather than broad public service.
  • Religious Buildings: Churches (Eastern Orthodox, Protestant) exist, primarily for optics, as religious practice is not widespread.
  • Elite Residence: Kim Jong-un lives in a heavily secured compound with rumored underground bunkers and escape routes, contrasting sharply with the conditions of ordinary citizens.
  • Subway System: A notably well-maintained and deep underground train system.

The Human Element: Life Amidst Control

Okay, I want to finish this discussion by talking about the thing we can’t really see on these maps: the people. They are regular people, like you and I. They have dreams and ambitions. They just want to have some food, enjoy themselves, and go out with friends. They just want to have a happy life. Despite all the horrors of this place, there are wholesome, meaningful traditions and rituals that still endure. The Lunar New Year or the harvest festival brings people together to celebrate. Extreme poverty might limit their feasts, but they often consist of homemade alcohol, simple rice cakes, and something that poverty and totalitarianism can’t totally take away: community. The nourishment of relationships.

As we’ve seen, most people can’t really move around the country, so they stay in one place. Defectors have reported that this leads to a strong sense of intimacy and connection with the community they live next to. They lean on each other; they survive because of each other. They celebrate together, and they seem to find meaning despite all the limitations and all of the control. One defector went so far as to say, “Everything was suffocating and pitiful in North Korea, but it is a country that I have many positive memories from.” So, if someone asks me, “What is North Korea like?” I might say, “North Korea is a nice place with plenty of love.” And that’s, I think, one of the things that’s often forgotten when we look at North Korea in the traditional media. Because people having a happy life isn’t newsworthy, but a military parade, or a nuclear test, or a missile launch, well, that’s newsworthy. So, I’m just leaving you with a reminder that there’s more to this country than the horrible realities we often see on the news.

• Human Resilience: Despite harsh conditions, North Koreans are regular people with dreams and a desire for happy lives.
• Enduring Traditions: Wholesome traditions like Lunar New Year and harvest festivals continue, fostering community.
• Community & Intimacy: Limited movement fosters strong, intimate community connections where people rely on each other for survival and celebration.
• Defector Perspectives: Some defectors recall positive memories, emphasizing the importance of human connection amidst hardship.
• Media Bias: Traditional media often focuses on military and political events, overlooking the daily lives and human experiences of ordinary North Koreans.