Guardian architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright explains seven highlights from his recently published book Inside North Korea to Dezeen.
Wainwright's book, published by Taschen and released on 22 June 2018, offers a glimpse inside the notoriously secretive nation.
The 200 photos in the book, which are available to purchase, document the strange and colourful architecture of the country and its capital Pyongyang.
Completely rebuilt after the end of the Korean War in 1953, the city is the grand vision of the country's first leader, Kim Il Sung, and contains many intriguing buildings.
Below Wainwright explains seven of the most interesting he photographed to Dezeen.

Changgwang Health and Recreation Complex, Pyongyang, 1980 A mechanical elevator shuttles swimmers up to the diving boards behind a smoked glass screen in the Changgwang Health and Recreation Complex, a massive leisure centre built in Pyongyang in 1980.
Covering an area of almost 40,000 square metres, with capacity for 16,000 people, it contains a sauna, bathhouse, swimming pools and hair salons ? where customers can choose from a range of officially sanctioned haircuts. Attention was lavished on details, from a decorative terrazzo floor in the entrance, to coloured cast glass panels and mosaic floors.

Grand People's Study House, Pyongyang, 1982
A statue of the country's founding president, Kim Il Sung, welcomes visitors into the Grand People's Study House, built in 1982 as the central library of...