Photos from North Korea’s east coast show how tough life is away from the capital

TOKYO — North Korea, according to the North Korean regime, is a “socialist paradise” where well-dressed citizens take to the streets to celebrate their spectacular advances in missile and nuclear technology.

This was the message that North Korea’s propagandists conveyed after a hydrogen bomb test in September and again last week, after leader Kim Jong Un supervised the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile technically capable of reaching every corner of the United States.