Devastated in the Korean War, Pyongyang was completely reconstructed in 1953, in accordance with criteria set by the nation’s founder, Kim Il-sung. Under the current leader, Kim Jong-un, construction has accelerated and the city has quickly transformed into the stage set of an illusion of prosperity. The  journalist and photographer Oliver Wainwright, architecture critic of The Guardian, gives us an insightful walk through several restricted spaces of the world’s most hermetic state, showing how behind pastel-toned facades hides a lavish country of wonders made of marble, mosaic, and coffered ceilings.
The omnipresence of North Korea’s leaders seeps into interior spaces, where state regulation ensures that portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il are hung at the  centers of rooms. 

Published by Taschen, the book Inside North Korea presents over 200 images that illustrate the materialization of one of the country’s official slogans: “Let’s make the nation a socialist fairyland.”