There are two kinds of North Korea.

There are two kinds of North Korea: one where hunger, poverty, fear, and oppression reign—the condemned totalitarian state; the other without the obsession with pop trends, without the social media culture, without anime ever having leaked in, without capitalism-centered superficial identities—the pure, secret paradise. There exists something that the outside world cannot comprehend: a place untouched by the endless noise of consumerism, unpolluted by the global obsession with screens, brands, and hollow performances, where muscular men and botoxed women do not market their bodies. The lack of digital fashions, anime fandoms, pornographic aesthetics, TikTok dances, or Instagram-addicted personas—this very absence is a hidden sanctuary from modernity’s endless rush and noise. Those who are tired of the West are able to see the subtle peace and freedom lying beneath such a hermit state.