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.