North Korea has become one of the world’s most inaccessible countries. Little is known about the country’s economy or the livelihood of its people, as the regime controls all information leaving the country. Glimpses of North Korea have been shown in films and photographs, but how much is revealed remains in question.

Asia Colloquium’s Linjun Fan, traveled to North Korea by train with a Chinese tour group in July 2007. With her camera hidden under her jacket, Fan captured images of Pyongyang’s street life. She left the world’s most closed country with more than pictures, however.

Resources are wasted on praising the leaders, Fan said. Funding is dedicated to building statues and expensive plaques showing Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il while there is a daily struggle among the people for the basic necessities of life.

“You can see that they need food,” she said. “In the middle of the city, there are patches of corn growing.”

Blank appearances on faces make it difficult to decipher what people truly think of their lives, Fan said.

North Koreans are revealing what they think when they flee to the south, seeking refuge and a better life , Seoul television producer Lorenzo Lee said.

The differences between the two Koreas is stark, Lee said. “We use the same language, and yet we can’t even understand one another.”

View  Linjun Fan’s photographs here.

Far from the star-studded galas typical of Bollywood, hundreds of people crowd around an old television set in a dilapidated church to watch the conclusion of “Indian Idol 3.” The object of their interest is crooner Prashant Tamang, a 24-year-old Nepalese Indian police officer who was crowned the newest “Idol” to the delight of his hometown fans. Jonathan Jones (’05) reports for the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Siddharth Varadarajan, Visiting Lecturer and Associate Editor of The Hindu in New Delhi, writes a column about the government’s using vigilantes to target unarmed civilians in the struggle against “pro-Maoist” villages in what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the biggest threat to India’s security since the independence struggle.

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Wal-Mart shoppers, meet Xu Yaqing. She’s a 62-year-old retiree who lives on a fixed income in Beijing. Xu and her husband get by on $263 a month, and lately, the couple’s monthly pensions haven’t been enough. The price of the peanut oil that Xu cooks with has doubled in the past few months, and soaring costs for other staples have forced them to cut back on milk and to substitute bean curd for meat. They’re not starving. But they’re scared. “Prices are going up so much and so quickly,” Xu complains. Xu’s lamentations, and those of her fellow Chinese, may soon be reverberating around the world, and particularly loudly at big-box retailers like Wal-Mart in the West. Austin Ramzy (’03) reports for TIME Asia.

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Pakistanis from across the nation are flocking to the morgues of Karachi to identify loved ones who perished in Thursday’s devastating suicide attack on a welcome-home rally for former two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The blasts killed 133 and left hundreds critically injured. As families struggled to identify mangled bodies shattered by the force of the explosions, grief turned to rage. But the inevitable questions surrounding Pakistan’s worst ever terrorist attack — who did this, and why? — remain unanswered. Aryn Baker (’01) reports from Kabul for TIME.

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Egypt’s bloggers are filling reporting gaps left when journalists and editors are imprisoned for publishing stories critical of President Hosni Mubarak. The country’s blogosphere, one of the world’s largest, has had a strong social and political impact. Reported by visiting scholar Hossam el-Hamalawy (’08) during this week’s Asia Colloquium.

The United States military is making little headway in assisting the southern Philippines in its war on terrorism. The lines of good and evil are blurred in a story seldom covered by the American press. Reported by journalism student Isabel Esterman (’09) during this week’s Asia Colloquium.

Working in a war zone can be draining, with places to alleviate the tension hard to find. In Kabul, NGO staff, journalists, and foreign development workers have long sought out L’Atmosphère Restaurant and Bar for its convivial charms, excellent wine list (for Afghanistan) and comforting French meals. Aryn Baker (’01) reports from Kabul for TIME.

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A recent string of serious pollution incidents across China pushed water quality challenges to the top of the national agenda for senior policymakers. The incidents — from chemical spills to algae blooms — also riveted attention on domestic and international studies describing the increasingly fragile condition of rivers, lakes and groundwater that sustain rural and urban China. Visiting scholars Yichao Wang (VS ‘06) and Bo Ren (VS ‘04 ) write in Beijing’s influential Caijing Magazine (Business and Finance Magazine) about recent water pollution incidents.

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Amantha Perera (VS’04) writes from Colombo for IPS about fading prospects for peace in Sri Lanka. He also contributes a recent photograph showing monks in Sri Lanka expressing solidarity with monks attacked in the September demonstrations in Burma.
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Benazir Bhutto has always had a knack for pleasing the crowds. For months the former Pakistani Prime Minister, who has lived in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since 1999, has hinted at an eventual return to her beloved homeland.

Following her talk “Inside the Red Mosque” in the North Gate Library on Aug. 27, 2007, Aryn Baker (’01) returned to Pakistan where she reports for TIME on the lead up to the presidential election on October 6.

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