Kim Il-Sung, sporting the red scarf of the Young Pioneer organization, watches over the youth of North Korea in this large roadside propaganda painting.

Taken while driving south on the Reunification Highway towards the DMZ dividing North and South Korea.

A high-rise apartment building in Pyongyang. The building on the left is the Koryo Hotel, which is basically the Ritz-Carlton of Pyongyang. Like most hotels in North Korea, it features a revolving restaurant.

Gather ’round, comrades, and watch this excerpt from a lecture on the DMZ’s Joint Security Area, courtesy of an officer from the Korean People’s Army.

Today I uploaded more footage taken while driving through Pyongyang.

The first video includes footage of Kim Il-Sung Square, the Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang Traffic Girls, and the Grand People’s Study House.

This second video was taken while driving through Pyongyang in the evening. There is not much to see, due to the lack of electricity, and therefore lighting, in Pyongyang.

In this photo, an officer in the Korean People’s Army lectures our group of American Imperialists on, among other things, U.S. Imperialism. Before the officer began his lecture, our North Korean guide (also in the above photo), Ms. Lee, said “I apologize in advance. I will say ‘American Imperialists’ several times.” I was pretty floored when she said this. A North Korean apologizing for calling us imperialists? Never in a million years would I have expected that.

This lecture was held in the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) Conference Room in the DMZ’s Joint Security Area. Aside from being a major tourist attraction, this conference room is where the North Korean and South Korean/UN Command occasionally meet for diplomatic negotiations.

Needs a new coat of paint, but yeah, it works.

Well, it was the tallest in the world when I saw it, but in September 2010 the Azeris completed a 162 meter flagpole in Baku, giving them the world record (although lately it has encountered a bit of structural trouble). I guess that news hasn’t reached Kim Jong-Il yet, because surely he would continue the trend of “everything’s bigger in the DPRK.”

This flagpole, which sports a 600lb DPRK flag, is situated at the entrance to the DMZ “village” of Kijŏngdong, which is really nothing more than a Potemkin village built to extol the luxurious living enjoyed by DPRK citizens. During the 1980s, a “flagpole war” erupted between North and South Korea, in which each country tried to best the other by building taller flagpoles until South Korea relented after realizing how ridiculous such a competition was.

Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il (The “Great Leader” and “Dear Leader”, respectively) watch over the departure lounge at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport.

Taken while driving through Kaesong. For whatever reason, most people who owned bikes weren’t actually riding them, just walking them through the streets.