Children sledding down icy alleys, young couples courting on quiet street corners, sellers hawking their goods on an unofficial market: A series of rare videos filmed with long lenses across the Chinese border offers a candid look at daily life in the North Korean city of Hyesan. The short films, which were published by a Chinese videographer on the social media platform ixigua.com, appear to be filmed almost daily and seem to show North Korean street life in Hyesan as late as Monday.

More than a year after North Korea shut its borders for tourists and others in an