Asia | A decade of despair

Ten years into Kim Jong Un’s rule, North Korea is more North Korean than ever

Diplomatic failure and covid-19 have prompted unprecedented self-isolation

Dec 16th 2021|SEOUL

LOOKING ACROSS the Han river estuary from the Aegibong peace park observatory in Gimpo near Seoul, South Korea’s capital, North Korea is just a short paddle away. Less than a mile from the observatory, its citizens can be seen tending fields and riding bicycles past a cluster of low-rise blocks of flats not far from the river bank. If any of them were to peer back, they would see gaggles of South Korean schoolchildren trying to get a closer look at their settlement through the row of binoculars erected at the viewpoint.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “A decade of despair”