What does North Korea look like? Not too different from anywhere else—just emptier.

In an attempt to gear up its coverage of the North Korea, the Associated Press sent its chief Asia photographer, David Guttenfelder, to Pyongyang in April. His pictures document day-to-day life in what might be the most closed-off society in the world—the oddly empty plazas; the carless highways; the rituals of dictator worship.

[The Independent, image by David Guttenfelder via AP]