[custom_adv] North Koreans need permission to live in the capital (there are roadblocks on the country’s streets that stop you moving around without permission) and the city is generally made up of people loyal to the party and those who have a higher position in society. [custom_adv] At some special events we went to like a funfair and a FIFA soccer game, it wasn’t unusual to see people with mobile phones and digital cameras. [custom_adv] But this certainly wasn’t a common sight on the streets, presumably because technology like that is too expensive for most people.On the streets of North Korea’s capital themselves, there’s an eerie feeling of vacuity – an emptiness evident by the lack of vehicles, sounds of traffic or crowds of pedestrians. [custom_adv] In theory there are 3 million people in Pyongyang but it seemed quieter than a small country town. [custom_adv] It felt a bit like one of those post-apocalyptic movies, with the irony being that the world thinks it will be North Korea that will wreak the apocalypse. [custom_adv] The average North Korean isn’t commuting from home to the office, though. Many are employed in construction, manufacturing or the military. [custom_adv] None of this is easy work, by the way, and the construction teams we saw were doing a lot more by hand than you would expect in any developed economy. [custom_adv] The Pyongyang skyline was filled with the grey concrete apartment buildings that house the population, where they presumably spend a lot of their time. [custom_adv] At night, though, many of the windows were dark (either because of power shortages or because they were uninhabited) and it felt like a city designed with the promise of a metropolis but without the ability to deliver. [custom_adv] Glimpses inside some of the lit apartments revealed simple, bare abodes with prominent photos of the leaders on the wall.