Attend the spectacular Mass Games, a larger-than-life extravaganza featuring more than 100,000 performers in synchronized gymnastics, acrobatics, dance, and folk songs. The performers’ backdrop, which at first appears to be a giant LCD screen, is in fact 20,000 children flawlessly changing colored cards every 15 to 30 seconds to create different scenes.  The two-hour show, which is akin to the highly memorable opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, is performed in the 150,000-capacity May Day stadium, the world’s largest, and takes place only from August 2 to October 10.

Visit the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung, a surreal experience of the people’s reverence for the Great Leader and a must-do on any trip to Pyongyang.  After a rigorous entry procedure that involves donning sanitary slippers and passing through a “clean room” to remove dust off you, an elaborate procession leads you through enormous palatial halls until finally you approach the transparent sarcophagus. You will be required to bow on three sides of his body – it is advisable not to visit DPRK if you are not willing to obey their strict rules.

The DMZ, a 2.5-mile-wide strip dividing the two Koreas, is the most heavily fortified border in the world, where cease-fire talks halted the Korean War in 1953. While Western tourists flock to the South Korean side to spy a glimpse of the North, it is infinitely cooler to experience the DPRK DMZ, looking south toward Seoul. Chat with North Korean soldiers, some of whom are adept at English and quite friendly (like the one pictured here with Remote Lands’ co-founder and CEO Catherine Heald).

In DPRK, the seemingly prosaic is in fact mind-boggling. Take a 30-minute stroll from the Arch of Triumph (taller than Paris’s) to the 65-foot tall Mansudae Grand Monument of Kim Il Sung to witness daily life in the capital. Visit a Pyongyang secondary school for unique insight into North Korean culture and the education of its youth today. Chat with women and doctors at the 13-floor Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, and visit the Changgwan Health Complex, where swimming is a favorite, to see the state of fitness facilities in North Korea today.