The world's attitude toward North Korea tends to swing between playful mocking and genuine horror.
Like dictatorships before it — namely, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia — North Korea tends to embody that range of emotion through its architecture.
On the one hand, there's the country's fondness for pastel hues, which recall 1950s Americana. But on the other, there are the towering concrete buildings that shroud observers in their shadow.
In a country that keeps so much under wraps, the architecture ends up speaking volumes.
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Entering the capital city of Pyongyang, visitors pass through the Arch of Reunification. The two women holding a conjoined North and South Korea symbolize supreme leader Kim Il Sung's vision for the two countries.
Immediately, visitors are struck by the Workers' Party Monument. The outer belt reads, "Long live the Workers' Party of Korea, the organizer and guide of all victories of the Korean people!"
Downtown Pyongyang's skyline is punctuated by the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, currently the tallest abandoned building in the world. It hasn't had any work done on it since 1992.
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