I didn’t know what I was getting into when I accepted an NGO posting in North Korea, one of the last bastions of Stalinism and, famously, a member of George W Bush’s ‘axis of evil’.
I knew the Western media’s view – the country was a brutal and dangerous regime that plays on the nuclear threat and is ranked last in press freedom. But I wondered about the people. Were things really so bad? Was hunger widespread? Would the country eventually open up to the outside world like China and Vietnam? What would daily life be like? Would I be confined to my living quarters, imprisoned by countless restrictions, watched closely by my assigned translator?
