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North Korea today: a glimpse inside the forbidden country

July 8 it's 20 years since the death of North Korea's first President Kim Il Sung

Photo {{sliderIndex+1}} from 18

The climate in Pyongyang is continental: cold in winter and hot in summer

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

The population of Pyongyang is officially 2.8 million people

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Ryugyong Hotel is the tallest building in Pyongyang and the seventh tallest in the world. The hotel is still not operational as the Kempinski company dropped out of the project fearing US sanctions

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

The second tallest building in Pyongyang is the Tower of the Juche Idea. Inside the 170-meters obelisk, there's a lift to a viewing point on the top

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Pyongyang from the highest viewing point in the city

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Pyongyang from the highest viewing point in the city

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Pyongyang from the highest viewing point in the city

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

The Taedong River flows through Pyongyang. Across the river there's a new residential block

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Before 1992, cycling was forbidden in Pyongyang. Today, it's gaining popularity

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

People come to Mansudae Hill in Pyongyang to lay flowers to the monuments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

A wedding ceremony on Mansudae Hill in Pyongyang

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Monuments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il. Kim Il Sung is designated in the North Korean constitution as the country's "Eternal President"

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

A monument to Workers' Party of Korea

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

A local rests on the monument to Workers' Party of Korea

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Every year Pyongyang citizens march to mark the anniversary of the start of the Korean War that split the Korean people

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

Celebrations to mark the 64th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, June 25

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

The Demilitarized Zone serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. It runs along the 38th parallel north. The zone is 241 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

A monument in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The date on the monument — July 7, 1994 — was the day Kim Il Sung signed a decree on rapprochement with the South. It was his last decree: he died the next day in Pyongyang

© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Lebedev

On July 8 it's 20 years since North Korea's first President Kim Il Sung died a day after he signed his last decree on rapprochement with the South. Get a glimpse of everyday life in one of the least tourist friendly countries of the world twenty years after its founder's death in this picture story by an ITAR-TASS correspondent.

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