RUSSELL MYERS

to honour their leaders’ “sacrifice” fighting Japanese and US imperialists.

But away from the city sparkle lies the true harsh reality of life under the Kims’ twisted version of socialism, where desperate peasant workers carry out backbreaking work and pick crops with their bare hands.

Foreigners are rarely allowed access to the secretive country.

During an eight-day stay, we travelled more than 100 miles from the capital and saw first-hand how the regime rule with an iron grip.

As Kim showcases his devastating arsenal of military power in a muscle-flexing warning to the West, his ordinary subjects starve.

Outside Pyongyang, home to three million of the brainwashed “elite”, lies a desolate countryside where 20million farm workers scratch out a miserable existence.

Their toil remains the lifeblood of the nation, while regime kingpins enjoy the fruits of their labour. Many millions of acres exist without even the most basic industrial machinery.

But North Korea claims to be one of the most advanced countries in the world and boasts of its ability to launch a nuclear attack on its enemies.

The vast rivers which should be a bustling avenue of trade are devoid of activity, the scenery occasionally split up by a few labourers breaking rocks on the riverbed.

Soldiers regularly survey the peasants’ work, so they live in fear and act busy when their guards are near, even when there is nothing to do.

We saw one woman quickly pick up a stick and stare at the ground after being reprimanded by an official – a sign of the level of fear that exists in this dystopian dream-like nation.

Kim’s nuclear ambitions have further crippled the country as stringent sanctions have banned the trade deals it needs to survive.

Yet, despite the absence of the intercontinental ballistic missiles he has been so keen to show off in previous years, the warped attitudes show no sign of fading.

Western defence officials say North Korea is regularly employing “deceptive tactics to evade UN sanctions” and they have raised fears that Kim has no desire to deplete his nuclear capability.

Satellite imagery of the Sanumdong facility near Pyongyang has shown recent signs the regime is building one or possibly two ICBMs – the exact ones Trump wants Kim to give up or face even harsher global penalties.

But it would seem Kim’s loyal subjects stand by him, too.

At the behest of the regime, our sister paper The Daily Mirror attended the incredible 70th anniversary celebrations of the country’s foundation on Sunday.

One government official smiled broadly when asked if the lack of hardcore weaponry on show meant