Pyongyang Art Studio

Description:

• More disturbing than odd, this tiny shop, opened by a Brit who has been traveling to the DPRK since 1993, is crammed with North Korean goods and socialist realist art. Cultural Revolution kitsch, while in questionable taste, has some distance to it. This is more confronting: There are anti-U.S. tracts, and paeans to the Dear Leader, Kim Il-Sung, the only man to card a perfect 18 in a round of golf. His love of cinema is described in "Great Man and Cinema," while "A Great Mind" celebrates his father, Kim Jong-Il. There are propaganda posters (many hand-painted), magazines, flags, T-shirts, cigarettes, and even North Korean hooch. Compelling. Open Mon-Fri 10am-6pm.

• © Frommer's 2013