NORTH Korea's past effort to build Asia's highest building failed - the 110-storey hotel has never been completed. It has, however, succeeded in building the tallest statues in Asia of living leaders. This much is known about that country.
The general dearth of anecdotal evidence about North Korea is part and parcel of its remoteness and isolation from the world. Most of the few tourists who go to North Korea are pro-Pyongyang Korean residents who are usually too busy singing the regime'spraises to offer any fresh perspectives.
The occasional conducted tours for non-Koreans sometimes produce insights. Some of those visitors recently reported that residents of Pyongyang were facing the depth of the Korean winter without either heating or hot water. Air raid drills are being used as an excuse to turn out the lights in the North Korean capital for the entire night.
Conducted tours are usually devoid of any spontaneous North Korean behaviour. Unlike their Chinese or Vietnamese counterparts, North Korean tour guides seldom, if ever, depart from the party line.
They devoutly retail the Gospels according to the Great and Wise Leader, President-for-life Kim Il-Sung, and the Dearly Beloved and (this adjective has been recently added) Sagacious Leader, commander-in-chief and First Son, Kim Jong-il.
Once a leading Italian journalist wittily turned this humourless habit to his advantage. His dispatch from North Korea began ''I have just been on a visit to paradise'', and consisted of an outwardly earnest recounting of the party line. For outsiders, the account came across as brilliant satire. For the North Koreans, here was a foreigner who reported the truth. The journalist in question was rewarded with return visas.