＜Super-telephoto Report＞Border Guards Look Healthier with Improved Uniforms "Since the Chinese are watching us, selecting robust soldiers, issuing special uniforms" Residents also ordered not to appear shabby Hyesan (6 photos)

2025.12.16

◆ Don't damage the Republic's prestige... Controlling border residents' behavior

-- Are there special guidelines for ordinary people too?

"The people's unit exercises heavy control, saying that acts damaging 'the Republic's prestige' in border areas will be punished no less severely than river-crossers (defectors). It's difficult to go to the river, and they strictly prohibit all acts like waving hands toward the Chinese side, conversing, fighting, or brawling."

5. Soldiers moving a hand tractor stop to talk with a soldier leading a goat in the middle of the road.

-- Who conducts the crackdowns and how?

"Security guards at people's unit checkpoints crack down on people whose dress is improper. Everyone wears 'yellow vests,' and you must comply when the checkpoint questions or inspects you.

The plan is that once the apartments currently under construction are completed, all the low-rise housing in the Gwangan-dong area (visible from the observation deck) will be demolished. Ultimately, (they) won't even show (us living poorly)."

6. A North Korean soldier on duty carrying an automatic rifle. Appears to be in his early 20s. His uniform is neat.

The sight of robust soldiers in neat uniforms paradoxically reveals what North Korea government fears most: the controlled and hidden reality just behind this façade. The reporting partner's self-deprecating remark that Chinese tourists watch "like looking at a zoo" offers a sharp observation about North Koreans trapped in what amounts to a giant stage set.

※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.

※ All photos were taken by the ASIAPRESS reporting team in September 2025 of Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, from the Chinese side of the border.