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A glimpse behind the 21st century's Iron Curtain: Revealing pictures show North Korea's flatpack factories, empty motorways and glittering Hotel Of Doom
- Swedish photographer Björn Bergman, 59, spent nine days travelling the world's most secretive state
- It took him two years to obtain a tourist's visa and was escorted round on an official tourbus
By Helen Lawson
PUBLISHED:11:04 EST, 18 April 2013| UPDATED:07:09 EST, 19 April 2013
These revealing images shed light on life inside North Korea, the world's most secretive state.
The images were captured by Björn Bergman, 59, who spent nine days travelling around the nation.
There he saw motorways devoid of any traffic, mass military displays by choreographed troops ,and rural poverty.
An official regime photographer waits for the birthday anniversary celebrations of the country's founder Kim Il-Sung, who is commemorated every April at his statue in Pyongyang, which has a raised arm greeting the nation
The 1,082ft Ryugyong hotel is an empty shell in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It is coated with £111million of glass and may open to guests in the summer after 26 years of construction
Eight North Korean soldiers guard the blue UN building, which is right on the shared border with South Korea
The Soft Drink restaurants are private enterprises in Pyongyang, North Korea. Swedish photographer Bjorn Bergman, 59, spent nine days in the nation capturing local life
He spent two years trying to obtain a visa and once there was whisked around the country on an official tour bus.
His images, which almost didn't see the light of day after his memory card was wiped, show bleak rural life, with lone figures tending to vast expanses of barren farmland.
Others show the giant hammer and sickle statues towering above the eerily empty streets of the capital, Pyongyang.
Meanwhile beneath the city, old fashioned underground carriages carry commuters about their business.
A grand, golden platform is the site of statues and posters of the country's founder Kim Jong-il and his grandson, the current leader Kim Jong-un.
Flower arrangements at the site of the Kim il-Sung and Kim Jong-il statues mark the founder's anniversaries with the tip of the Ryugyong Hotel also seen in the background
The imposing hotel - dubbed the Hotel of Doom by some outlets for the length of time it has taken to build and open - looms over a war monument in the North Korean capital
The subway, decorated with paintings depicting the military, is also prepared to act as a shelter for North Koreans in the case of a nuclear attack
This subway station, with gold lettering decorating the arch over the escalators, can also be used as a nuclear shelter
Bergman said: 'My kids and friends thought I was 100 per cent crazy for going to North Korea and asked me to stay at home.
'But North Korea is one of the safest countries for tourists according to the UN.
'The trip was scary, horrible, and beautiful all at the same time.
'We weren't allowed to talk to the natives - they wouldn't even so much as look at us.'
Women performing manual maintenance of the eight-lane 160km-long super highway between Pyongyang and the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which is devoid of any traffic
Fighter jets perform in formation during the 100-year anniversary of Kim Il-Sung
People walk along an old Eastern European tram in the shadow of the city's skyscrapers
Outside of the city, a woman searches for worms or anything that can be eaten while a child looks on
A woman walks with her bicycle in rural area in North Korea in one of the photographs taken by Björn Bergman
Out in the countryside, Bergman encountered an eight-lane highway - used by just a trickle of traffic.
The lavish structure - which stretches 160km from the capital to the border with South Korea - was built despite estimates putting car ownership in the country at just one per thousand people.
Bergman added: 'My rule as a photographer is shoot first, then ask. The guards were very hostile.
'At the hotels they told us to stay in and would not allow us to leave without guides.
Kim Il-Sung Square overlooks the Taesung river and is more than 800,000sq ft in size
The administrative railway building in Pyongyang, towards the China border in North Korea
A road leading to the Korean Demilitarized Zoned between North and South Korea
The view of the exit from North Korea to the abandoned village of Panmunjom - where the North-South armistice was signed
An entry point to the zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea, taken on Björn Bergman's trip behind the modern-day 'Iron Curtain'
'We tried three times but didn't get further than three metres before they told us to go back.
'During our bus trips, there was three guards and they didn't allow us to take any pictures besides what they asked us to shoot, such as monuments.'
He added: 'I want to go back, but I'm not sure they will let me in again.'
Children play 'shop' in Kaesong with a makeshift tent and their imaginations
A carbon power plant in Pyongyang emits wisps of dark smoke above the skyline
Women pictured at work transporting material to farmers throughout the country
Soldiers were spotted scrubbing the streets manually before the celebration of Kim Il-Sung's anniversary
Bergman caught the mists of a foggy morning during rush hour in Pyongyang
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311131/Revealing-pictures-North-Koreas-flatpack-factories-motorways-glittering-Hotel-Of-Doom.html#ixzz2QvFCmvgW
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