Otto Weng’s first encounter with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea came through a telescope on the banks of the Yalu River. Gray hills. Empty roads. A place just out of reach.
Last week, he became one of the first non-Russian tourists to cross the border in five years — and found a country eager to put its best foot forward. Students at a lavishly decorated school performed a skit titled “We Are Happy”; factories bustled with activity; and children danced in space-aged costumes.
For Weng, a 24-year-old lifestyle vlogger with 500,000 followers on video platform Bilibili, the four-day trip was an exciting, if occasionally nerve-wracking, success. He returned with 700 gigabytes of footage from one of the world’s most…
