North Korea: Beyond the ‘hermit state’

Western journalists visiting Pyongyang delight in isolating the myriad little weirdnesses that make North Korea live up to its Hermit State moniker. The coloured badges the citizens wear just over their heart depicting Great Leader Kim Il Sung (dead since 1994 but still lauded as the Eternal President), the automated curfew that switches off all apartment lights at night, the air-raid sirens and operatic arias that wake the populace promptly at 7am... the Democratic People's Republic of Korea proves repeatedly to be neither democratic nor of the people.

North Koreans live in a totalitarian dictatorship skilfully incorporating the submissiveness of Confucianism into a state-mandated devotion to a Communism-espousing royal family. In order to keep this up, the country is subjected to unprecedented international isolation. North

Koreans are not allowed to travel abroad, nor are foreign visitors free to move inside the DPRK.

As a photographer, I wanted to get beyond the uniformity and capture the human beings behind the propaganda. The people are not automatons, one of the few European businessmen based in Pyongyang assured me. "They're very intelligent, thinking people," he said. "They are all independent thinkers. But they're also split personalities, they compartmentalise their thoughts."

I also hoped to capture the first signs of Westernisation - the introduction of MP3s, laptops, cellphone and internet access. Only this year, the Egyptian entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris had signed a deal to bring cellphone technology to the country through his corporation Orascum. With the state due to mark its 60th anniversary on September