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Extract taken from the article of Jan Šibík written for a Czech magazine “Reflex” after his trip to North Korea:
"You are not allowed to go out in the evening, it is dark and you might get lost easily", told us our guides, in reality secret policemen, in the foyer of hotel Korjo. After we resist, they offer us entourage. So we will not get lost, of course. We are walking down the main street with luxurious shops and restaurants on both sides - "sufficient evidence" of an excellent life of ordinary people. Actually, none of the shops or restaurants really works, or works but is empty. There are few homeless people lying around in the park in front of the station. Suddenly, policemen in uniforms spring up and try to drive them out. After all penury does exist here!
The portrait of the great leader placed above the station clock is shining into the darkness, but you are not allowed to enter the station. Our guides physically prevent us from doing it, so we decide to go back. At that very moment music from the station tower starts to sound. "It’s ten o’clock. You will hear the music again at five o’clock in the morning", one of the secret policemen explains to us. That moment I understood that lights-out must be adhered here not only in camps.
