Winters in North Korea are long and bitterly cold. Average temperatures range from -13 C to -3 C (9 to 27 F) during the chilliest months, and snow often blankets the ground. State media reported that temperatures on Christmas morning would drop to as low as -18 C in Pyongyang, -26 C in Rason and -40 C on Mount Paektu.

Covered in soft white snow, the villages, towns and mountainous landscapes of the country are indeed postcard picturesque, but such conditions can also be unsympathetically inhospitable. Daily life is often brutally harsh, as many have to do laundry in frozen