Wallpapered ceilings. Frilly fan cosies. Group photos on a grand scale. Come with us as we explore rarely seen images of domestic interior decor from the world’s most secretive state.

My curiosity was prompted by this story, in The Mirror, about the North Korean embassy, housed in a suburban semi in Gunnersbury Avenue, north London. Photographs of real Korean homes turned out to be very hard to find. This one below is actually a set, exhibited in the demilitarized zone which runs between North and South Korea.

The picture above is from flickr, and the photographer was taken there while on an official tour. He states that all the houses they were permitted to visit were the same, with fans, posters and TVs, the implication being that this viewable houses were a far cry from the way in which the majority of North Koreans really live. The country has been greatly afflicted by famine in the 1990s and an ongoing food crisis.

This last photograph is by Eric Lafforgue, a photographer who has worked all over the world, and on who’s website you can find a wonderful, touching and eerie set of images of North Korean and North Koreans.