Over the past few years, North Korea has been in the news more and more. Did you know that there are a few things about North Korea that they don’t want the rest of the world to know about? These things include the facts that most tourists must stay in the same hotel when visiting, their kids wear the same uniforms that they wear to school but they wear them all the time, and they have an IntRAnet, which contains only websites that the government approves of. So on that note, here are some rare pictures of North Korea that they don’t want us to see. Eric Lafforgue took a trip to North Korea, took these pictures, smuggled them out, and now he’s banned for life from ever visiting again.
North Korea depicts their citizen’s every day lives as very normal. Did you notice what’s wrong with this picture? There is no power, so the computers aren’t working.
In the rural areas, bathing in rivers is not unusual. Not exactly the picture perfect image they like to uphold.
In North Korea, the subway tunnels are also bomb shelters. Because it showed the tunnels, this picture was not allowed.
North Korea does not approve any picture that shows any form of poverty. For instance, these small children working is not allowed.
Kids also work out in the fields during hard economic times.
Cars are a recent addition to life in North Korea. Because of this, it’s not unusual to see kids playing in the streets.
While North Korea doesn’t want the pictures of poverty to be shown, they also don’t want pictures of wealth released. They did not want this picture of a Mercedes taken.
This is just a local street vendor, but when Lafforgue took the picture they asked him not use a flash because it would scare their citizens.
Life in the country of North Korea may not be as modern as they’d like it to seem. This is a bathroom in the home of a citizen who lives in the country.
Because cars are so new, public transportation hasn’t really caught on either. It’s common to see North Korean soldiers hitchhiking.
In this picture, it appears that the North Korean soldiers are relaxing by taking a smoke break. Soldiers are not allowed to relax so this picture was banned.
Pictures depicting malnourished citizens are not allowed either.
Worker safety isn’t necessarily on the top of the list of concerns.
The North Korean government will allow pictures of animals performing, but not of the crowd watching the performance.
Grocery stores are reserved for only their most elite citizens. There isn’t much on the shelves, but they do carry Evian water.
When Lafforgue took this picture, he thought it was a nice picture of a mother and child relaxing outside. The government thought people would think the two were homeless, and asked him to delete the pictures.
You can take pictures of statutes, but you cannot take pictures of statues from behind.
Pictures of the North Korean military are not allowed.
North Korea wants their soldiers to uphold a strong image. This picture of a soldier doing manual labor is not allowed, because it’s not a strong image.
Residents of North Korea are required to attend the Kimjonilia Festival, where they are also required to visit various monuments. This is a festival for flowers and is named after Kim Jong-il, their former dictator.
A cart where they are selling cigarettes and candy.
In North Korea, they try to maintain the exteriors of buildings, but this isn’t always the case and many end up looking run down.
Brooms are not allowed at the bottom of any statues, so this picture is banned.
During hard times, North Koreans are often seen picking grass from the park, putting it in a bag, and using it for food. You can see why North Korea wouldn’t like that image.
Pictures of anything that doesn’t work are not allowed. These soldiers are pushing a broken down bus.
It’s common for the power to be out in North Korea. When it happens, they blame it on the American embargo.
It’s a picture of a soldier sleeping in the grass in public which is very frowned upon.
Some of these images didn’t seem like much of anything to bat an eye at, but when you are trying to portray the perfect nation to the entire world, I guess you have to be unnecessarily picky about what is exposed. Seeing pictures like these make me very happy to live where I live and be able to have the rights and freedoms that every person deserves.