SEOUL, South Korea — A well-dressed young woman toured a shiny, brightly lit grocery store in Pyongyang, where high-heeled women browsed shelves and refrigerators filled with beverages, chocolates, candies and other snacks. International reports of possible panic buying in North Korea had surfaced, and she was there to find the truth. She asked shoppers and clerks if any goods were out of stock; they weren’t. She asked if prices were rising; just imported products, which North Koreans shunned anyway. The young woman, Un A, is the new face of North Korean propaganda, an attempt to create a more benign and modern image of an isolated dictatorship most associated with famines, ​​human rights abuses and nuclear stockpiles.

Source: International New York Times September 12, 2020 16:52 UTC