About a year before North Korea briefly reopened its doors to select Western tourists before restricting access again, this drone operator posted on Reddit, claiming they had successfully flown their drone across the border from China into North Korean airspace.
Accompanying the images, they shared the caption: “Drone pics of North Korea, I was in China, my drone flew across the border.”
With over 145,000 upvotes, the photos showcase a massive building adorned with portraits of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder, and Kim Jong-il, his successor.
What really stood out to users, however, was the eerie emptiness of the streets. For what appears to be a major urban area, there were surprisingly few people in sight. While it’s unclear exactly when the photos were taken, daylight is visible in the shots.
One Redditor was quick to comment: “Am I tripping or is there no street drainage at all? Definitely no traffic lights. Looks like a concrete model of a city.”
But while many were fascinated by the images, one of the most common reactions wasn’t about the footage itself – it was about the person who captured it.
Others jokingly suggested that the drone operator might have started an international incident, saying: “Guy singlehandedly invaded N. Korea.”
Another chimed in with a humorous take: “If this random dude with a drone from a store can this easily spy on North Korea, imagine the intel the US has. US intelligence are probably like ‘wait s***, we spent hundreds of millions on spy satellites and could have just used a f****** $500 drone?’”
