The North Koreans

For decades North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has been a country shrouded in secrecy from the outside world. Little is seen of the totalitarian regime of Kim Jong-il, son of the great leader Kim Il-sung, or the people of one of the few Communist-ruled countries in the world. As a clandestine nation with nuclear ambitions, Nort Korea was only recently taken off the U.S. list of "states that sponsor terrorism", whilst international NGOs count human rights in North Korea as some of the worst in the world, with severe restrictions on their political and economic freedoms. Freedom of the press is non-existent.
Photographer Irina Kalashnikova and Glyn Ford, al British member of European Parliament, visited North Korea in August 2008. Cameras and visitors are both tightly regulated, yet they managed to bring back unique images of a population that were often far removed from our Western preconceptions.