North Korea: Eerie Images Released Of Secretive State As It Marks Liberation Anniversary
Life, But Not As You Know It, Captured In North Korea
Steven Hopkins— The Huffington Post UK
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Captured in motion, men in white shirts and women in colourful dresses, dance in North Korea in a timeless image that shows the lively weekend celebrations marking 70 years of freedom from Japanese colonial rule.
The picture of the dancers, performing as part of Liberation Day celebrations on Saturday, is in stark contrast to the mundane everyday life images, captured by the Associated Press the following day, which show the mundane happenings in the rarely pictured dictatorship.
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Pictures have emerged showing everyday life in North Korea
The pictures show a young boy getting his hair cut on an apartment balcony; a man examining a stamp in a cabinet and pedestrians giving way to traffic.
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Everyday life in North Korea captured
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North Koreans wait for public transportation at a bus stop in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sunday. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(02 of07)
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A man looks at items at a stamp shop in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A woman and her daughter walk past a North Korean flag hung on a utility pole as part of celebrations of the Liberation Day in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sunday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Koreans pause to give way for passing vehicles as they cross a road in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sunday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A man cuts the hair of a young boy at an apartment building in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sunday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Women in traditional outfits dance during the celebration of the Liberation Day in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(07 of07)
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People dance during the celebration of the Liberation Day as the portrait of North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il are seen in the background at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday. Thousands of people take part in the celebration that commemorates the 17th anniversary of the liberation of the Koreas from Japanese colonial rule. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
On Saturday North Korea held a loud but peaceful mass rally inside the Demilitarised Zone, replete with an all-woman brass band, flag-waving and fist-pumping, as South Korean and US soldiers stood watch just meters away on their side of the truce village of Panmunjom.
Though staged to mark the anniversary of Japan's Second World War defeat, the rally came just after Pyongyang said the South had committed an act of war by broadcasting anti-North propaganda across the border.
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North Korea celebrates its liberation
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South Korean anti-war activists hold dove-shaped placards during a rally denouncing the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) joint US-South Korea military exercise, near the US embassy in Seoul on August 17, 2015. Tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops kicked off a large-scale military exercise on August 17 simulating an all-out attack by North Korea, which has condemned the joint drill as a 'declaration of war.' (credit:JUNG YEON-JE via Getty Images)
SKOREA-US-NKOREA-MILITARY(02 of22)
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South Korean anti-war activists hold dove-shaped placards during a rally denouncing the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) joint US-South Korea military exercise, near the US embassy in Seoul on August 17, 2015. Tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops kicked off a large-scale military exercise on August 17 simulating an all-out attack by North Korea, which has condemned the joint drill as a 'declaration of war.' AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:JUNG YEON-JE via Getty Images)
(03 of22)
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South Korean protesters and North Korean defectors shout slogans during a rally denouncing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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South Korean protesters display a reunification flag during a rally demanding peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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South Korean protesters wave reunification flags during a rally demanding peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
South Korea Koreas Tension(06 of22)
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South Korean protesters tear a flag combining Japanese rising sun and American stars and stripes during a rally demanding peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Korean soldiers stand guard as a band member performs during a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Korean soldiers stand guard prior to a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Participants raise their fists as they chant slogans during a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Participants peer through a national North Korean flag at a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Korean soldiers stand guard during a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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South Korean soldiers inspect as their North Korean counterparts stand guard during a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Korean soldiers stand guard during a reunification rally in the border village of Panmunjom at the DMZ in North Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
South Korea Koreas Tension(14 of22)
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A South Korean protester carries a picture showing a meeting of the late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, left, and former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a rally demanding peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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South Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally demanding to stop the joint military exercises, Ulchi Freedom Guardian or UFG, between the US and South Korea near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea on Monday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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South Korean protesters stage a rally demanding to stop the joint military exercises, Ulchi Freedom Guardian or UFG, between the US and South Korea near the US Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Koreans applaud during a ceremony marking the new time zone on Saturday in Pyongyang, North Korea. Bells were rung and celebrations were held at midnight as the nation's clocks were set back 30 minutes to mark the August. 15, 1945 anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from colonial rule at the end of the Second World War (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A man is silhouetted while standing on the Taedong river bank near the venue of a ceremony held to mark the new time zone (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
North Korea Time Zone(19 of22)
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Men in traditional outfits ring a bell to mark the new time zone during a ceremony on Saturday (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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North Koreans applaud during a ceremony marking the new time zone (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Men in traditional outfits repeat the process of ringing a bell for photographers, which was done to mark the new time zone change (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Women in traditional outfits dance during the celebration of the Liberation Day in Pyongyang in North Korea (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
North and South Korea failed to agree on any joint celebration of the landmark anniversary of the liberation of their peninsula from Japan.
Instead, the North brought in select groups of Koreans living abroad and small numbers of foreigners who support Pyongyang. They attended marches, rallies and meetings calling for the Koreas' reunification, with speeches praising the North Korean leadership.
This year the North also suddenly announced that it was altering its time zone, moving it 30 minutes behind Japan's, to sweep away another legacy of Japan's colonisation of the Koreas from 1910 to 1945. The time change went into effect amid bell-ringing and celebrations in Pyongyang after midnight Friday, though South Korea is sticking with the previous time zone.
While there were no incidents during the rally in the DMZ, North Korea had threatened to attack South Korean loudspeakers that are broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda messages across their shared border, the world's most heavily armed. The broadcasts follow accusations from Seoul that Pyongyang had planted land mines on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone that maimed two South Korean soldiers last week.
Seoul retaliated by restarting the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts for the first time in 11 years.
North Korea's army said in a statement that the broadcasts are a declaration of war, and that if they are not immediately stopped "an all-out military action of justice" would ensue.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye urged Pyongyang to "wake up" from the delusion that it could maintain its government with provocation and threats.
Pyongyang's powerful National Defense Commission claimed Friday that Seoul fabricated the evidence and demanded video proof. The explosions resulted in one soldier losing both legs and another soldier one leg.