Emptiness, simplicity and poverty: 16 real photos of apartments of North Koreans

The media often describe North Korea as a country completely isolated from the outside world and living by its own rules. Some are sure that the DPRK is tightly stuck in the last century. However, photos of luxury skyscrapers and clean streets appearing on the web in Pyongyang is being forced to doubt this.

To finally put all the dots over the "I", we suggest you look at how ordinary average Koreans live — not officials and not politicians. What you see shocks you…

Below are 16 real photos of apartments of residents of the DPRK.

From a tourist who arrived in North Korea with a tour, there is practically no chance to visit the apartment of a local resident. Foreigners are strictly forbidden to deviate from the itinerary program, and the locals are not always friendly and friendly to visitors.

That is why the only thing that remains for curious tourists is to be content with photos and videos posted on the Internet. But, as you know, the DPRK is very strictly controlled by the dissemination of information.

Nevertheless, the journalists managed to visit several apartments of ordinary Koreans. And that's what they saw there:

This is the entrance of a three—storey residential building in Kaesong Township, Hwanghae-Pukto Province. On the right you can see the window of the janitor, who, concurrently, performs the duties of a janitor.

This is what the hallway looks like in most apartments. It's very cramped, there's barely enough room to take off your shoes. From furniture — no frills. However, as in the whole apartment.

Right behind the front door, there is usually a living room — a bedroom or a living room. Here in all apartments everything is "like a carbon copy" — posters of leaders on the walls, a small bed, a couple of chairs (and not always).

Koreans' apartments, to put it mildly, do not abound in furniture. Severe minimalism.

But if not everyone has beds, then portraits of Korean leaders are necessarily present.

Depressing emptiness…

Another luxury item for residents of the DPRK is a refrigerator. Yes, the one in which we store the products. Not all apartments have refrigerators here, because in some regions of the country there are constant power outages.

Pay attention to the decoration of the apartment. Are we back in The Soviet Union?

Electricity can turn off at any time, so almost all apartments have uninterruptible power supplies.

On the right you can see a solar panel covered with a curtain. When there is no electricity, it is hung out of the window.

Almost no one has plasma TVs. Here people still use long-forgotten "kinescopes" in other countries.

All apartments are empty, furniture is minimal. There are no decorations, only patriotic images on the walls.

People sleep either on beds or on mats. It is very good when the rooms have a heated floor.

This is how a local resident's bed looks like.

In the bathrooms you can see boilers. The third most important luxury item after the TV and refrigerator.

By the way, the baths of local residents (if there are any) are almost always filled with water in case of an unexpected shutdown.

And this is what an ordinary toilet looks like. In the apartment, not at the train station.

Of course, in the apartments located in the heart of Pyongyang, the situation is completely different. But now you know how Koreans have to live, who are cut off from the center of the capital.

Tell us what you think about this?