Smuggled North Korea Photos Give Rare Look at Life Outside The Capital

Most pictures available outside North Korea are of Pyongyang. That’s because tourism is restricted to the capital, and border control staff check — and delete– “unauthorised” photos from devices leaving the country.

But in a twist of luck, Beijing-based Getty photographer Xiaolu Chu’s train going from Moscow to Pyongyang stalled for a while in the remote village of Tumangang, in the northeastern tip of North Korea.

 

 

With a rare chance to see life outside of Pyongyang, Chu snapped pictures on his mobile phone and successfully managed to smuggle them out last August.

He told Mashable the customs officer didn’t know how to access other files on the device.

“He had only been taught to delete photographs from the phone’s album, but luckily I hid my photos in a different folder,” Chu said.

 

His day out in Tumangang, although brief, attracted suspicious looks from locals unaccustomed to foreigners walking around. He was reported to the police for taking pictures of local beggars — a forbidden shot, since it casts the country in poor light.

He said Tumangang appeared to be much poorer than Pyongyang, with hardly any modern architecture. The train station, although appearing dated, was completed as recently as 2013.

“At night the countryside is very dark. The only buildings lit up are the shrines to Kim Il-Sung, and Kim Jong-Il,” said Chu.

But while the town was more backward than Pyongyang, its people did not appear to be as poor as he had imagined, he said.

“People were very thin, they worked very hard, lifting heavy objects.

“I was also surprised to see that the children had very beautiful school uniforms,” he said.

 

 

After publishing the photos, he won’t be heading back to North Korea. “I would be too concerned for my safety and ending up in jail.”