12 photos of North Korea that Kim Jong-un would not like to show

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un closely monitors the media in his country, controlling much of what citizens know about the outside world, and vice versa.

While Kim Jong-un has fought to present his country to the world as a bulwark of military power, nuclear power and anti-Western sentiment, the reality of everyday life is bleak.

Most of the country lives in poverty, tens of thousands of people are held as political prisoners, and the government tightly controls most aspects of life.

12 PHOTOS

1. Daily life in North Korea can be grim.

2. North Korea - one of the most closed places in the world, in recent years has experienced an increasingly serious food shortage.

3. Childhood in North Korea can be difficult. Many children in rural areas have to work on farms, and forced labor affects much of the country's economy.

4. Malnutrition affects a shocking number of North Korean children - approximately 28% of children under 5 years of age are stunted.

5. Poverty and hunger are most acute in rural North Korea. An estimated 41% of the population, or 10.5 million people, are considered undernourished.

6. Xiaolu Chu, a Getty photographer who traveled to North Korea by train in 2015, said he noticed many people in villages asking for money.

7. "There are almost no fat people in North Korea," Chu said. "Everyone looks very thin."

8. But even North Koreans in cities face poor living conditions.

9. There is not much access to the Internet - people do it with a closed computer network system, accessible only in a few places, such as this library in Pyongyang.

10. One of the most significant aspects of life in North Korea is its army. The country's leader, Kim Jong-un, enjoys displaying his military might, holding flashy parades and distributing propaganda photographs of huge armies of marching soldiers. But less often you can see pictures that show a different military life. North Korean soldiers are often malnourished or ill due to rigorous training and lack of food.

11. Desertions are not uncommon, although the number of people who have done so has dropped by 21%.

12. North Korean soldiers are merciless when they see people fleeing to South Korea - these are the bullet holes when they tried to shoot a defector in November.