A man pushes her daughter on a cart as they shop at a market in Seoul, South Korea, July 26, 2016. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

North Koreans who signed up to join the army train in the midst of political tension with South Korea, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang August 23, 2015. Top aides to the leaders of North and South Korea resumed talks on Sunday after negotiating through the night in a bid to ease tensions involving an exchange of artillery fire that brought the peninsula to the brink of armed conflict. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)

At this year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy, the Korean pavilion has a curious exhibit called “Commissions for Utopia”. It includes renderings from North Korea’s top architects and artists (all anonymous), many of whom studied at the Paekho Institute of Architecture, North Korea’s state-run architectural college, and none of whom have ever left the country. They were asked to create a vision of North Korea’s future sustainable architecture for its expanding tourism industry. Their final products are a glimpse into what it would be like to envision the future after being entirely cut off from the present for almost 70 years. (Photo by Nick Bonner/Kyle Vanhemert/Venice Architecture Biennale)

Burlesque performer Tallulah Talons dances in the “Pandemic Burlesque” show presented by Tallulah Talons at Club Cumming on March 18, 2021 in New York City. Like many other New York City nightlife venues, the club was shuttered in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it continued to host cabaret and comedy shows via live stream for most of the year. The venue reintroduced on-site outdoor events in late December 2020. (Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP Photo)

Two elderly men smoking pipes of opium on a terrace in Korea. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images). August 1950

A worker works at a plant of Hyundai Motor in Asan, South Korea, January 27, 2016. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

A woman sits in a train at a subway station in Pyongyang, North Korea on September 11, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

Battle-weary American troops withdraw from Yong San in Korea. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1950