Signs that North Korea plans to further ease its COVID-19 border closure and reopen to tourism mean foreigners could start visiting Pyongyang in large numbers again soon, and when they do, there’s one unexpected feature of the capital that is likely to fascinate many of them — the city’s clean streets.

This was demonstrated mostly recently when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang and a Russian state media journalist noted his admiration for the modern, clean streets of the DPRK in a vlog. 

Unbeknownst to him, this observation perpetuated a longstanding pattern among foreign visitors, who often express surprise