North Korea's pleasure parks
North Korea's use of its showcase capital city to promote an image of national success and prosperity has cemented Pyongyang's reputation as a Potemkin Village boasting leisure facilities that amount to little more than "playgrounds for cadres."
Pyongyang has always been an exclusive city, and the 10 percent of the 25 million population allowed to live there generally enjoy a lifestyle the vast majority of North Koreans can only dream of.
But there are increasing signs that the capital's political elite are not the only ones able to indulge a taste for consumer goods and a spot of rest and recreation.
A closely monitored but tolerated grassroots capitalism, born out of a spirit of survivalist selfsufficiency that got many through the catastrophic failure of the state distribution system in the famine years of the mid-to-late 1990s, has given rise to a growing entrepreneurial class with disposable income and free time.
It emerged during the leadership of Kim Jong-Il, but has only begun to prosper under his son Kim Jong-Un who took power after his father died in 2011.
Its rise can be seen in Pyongyang in the number of mobile phone users, the growing fleets of taxis that ply the capital's wide avenues and the splashes of street fashion among young women.
If the sort of genuine wealth that creates car owners is still limited to a tiny minority, it seems there is larger, aspirant middle class gaining a foothold in the capital and presumably other cities.
'AUTHORITARIAN CAPITALISM'
Some observers such as veteran North Korea watcher Andrei Lankov believe Kim Jong-Un wants to promote a style of "authoritarian capitalism" that allows room for private enterprise while maintaining absolute political control over its development.
The rewards for those who benefit from such a system include the ability to afford a meal at one of Pyongyang's new restaurants or a family outing to watch a dolphin show.
Since taking over from his father, Kim has pushed through a number of costly "leisure" projects that range in scale and ambition from theme parks to a swanky equestrian centre and ski resort.
This in a country where, according to the United Nations, 70 percent of the population remains "food insecure" and cash-starved infrastructure leaves millions vulnerable to floods and drought.
For the North Korean leadership, the projects serve the dual purpose of projecting prosperity, while also catering to the elite and satisfying the aspirations of those with new-found disposable income.
And it clearly hopes the really high-end facilities, like the Masik Ski resort, will help bring in much-needed hard currency from increased tourism.
A lower-end example is a Folk Park built just outside Pyongyang and opened three years ago.
With its full-size replica of a fifth century pagoda and scaled down representations of Pyongyang's landmark monuments, it is similar to the sort of theme parks that proliferated in and around Chinese cities in the 1990s.
PARKS AND RECREATION
The entrance fee is low and the complex claims an average daily turnover of 5,000 visitors though nothing like that number was visible during a tour of the park last Sunday.
But a fair number of families and couples strolled round the attractions, some taking smartphone pictures of each other posing before the exhibits.
More than two million North Koreans have signed up for the 3G network service operated by Egypt's Orascom in partnership with North Korea's Koryolink.
"Our respected Marshal Kim Jong-Un said we must make this park a great education site for the nation, and to raise people's spirits," intoned the official tour guide.