Exclusive Slideshow for Food For Your Eyes. Photographs by Tomas Van Houtryve, North Korea Secret and Lies, 2008

Photojournalist Tomas Van Houtryve infiltered  North Korea last year pretending he was a business man who wants to sell chocolate to the most secret country in the world . That could be a Marx Brothers stories, it was also a tour de force. One year later, hearing the terrible news of two american journalists have been sentenced for 12 years of hard labored, he then realized how much it was a risky business. The photographs he managed to take in hospitals, factories, shops, subway in Penyang show what no foreigner could see.

His interviews about his photography inside North Korea were recently broadcast on BBC World Service and NPR . It is worth the listen.

“Rare Photos From Inside Kim Jong Il’s North Korea” in TIME Magazine

The slideshow above was prepared for Food For Your Eyes screening in Paris in June 2008 . It was the very first public presentation of this exclusive story. Check also Tomas Van Houtryve Journal