[ WP ] The Government and Media have been lying and North Korea is actually a super advanced , peaceful Utopia . You 're an American who just crashed landed a boat in North Korea .

`` Welcome, welcome!!'' the guide said as she ushered me through the gleaming airport terminal as I arrived from the coast. Her English was perfect. `` So happy to finally have a visitor from the United States! Due to the policies of your government, visits to North Korea are very limited.'' 
 
 *Of* **our** *government? * I thought. *What? * But the guide was chattering a mile a minute about the wonders of North Korea that we'd see. I let it go. *Poor, deluded fool. * 
 
 We boarded a sleek train in a brand new terminal of the airport, and it whooshed out of the station. *How many people died building this? * I thought to myself. *God, this trip is going to tear my conscience apart... * 
 
 The train emerged from a tunnel, giving me my first view of Pyongyang. I expected to see the iconic, unfinished blunder that was the Ryugyong hotel tower over the crumbling city, but I could n't even pick it out amid the mass of glistening glass and steel skyscrapers. 
 
 `` Errr... this is Pyongyang?'' I asked the guide hesitantly. She grinned. `` Yes! Welcome to our capital.'' She was constantly upbeat and enthusiastic. *Probably afraid for her family*, I told myself. `` It looks... different from the pictures.'' I was trying not to offend her. 
 
 `` Oh, you mean this?'' she held up a postcard of the decayed prison camp of a city that I'd seen on news broadcasts and documentaries. `` I'm afraid that you've only been seeing photos of a city across the border in China. Just another lie of the Western Media.'' 
 
 I did n't push the issue; I was too busy staring out the window of the train as we passed enormous monuments, perfectly manicured parks, busy intersections, quaint cafes, and everything else that a modern city would offer. The citizens looked happy, thriving, and well fed. Many of them were speaking on cell phones, using laptops, and every other item available in the West; I even saw a few gadgets that I could n't recognize. But throughout my trip, I did n't see a single homeless person, slum, or even trash in the streets. New York could learn a thing or two from this place. 
 
 Over the next several weeks, the guide explained everything to me, patiently and calmly, as she had clearly done for other westerners. I brought her maps of prison camps and detention centers; she drove me through the charming countryside to those locations, only to find summer camps and recreation centers. The farmers were happy and thriving, instead of scraping a meager existence from the earth as I'd been taught. The media was vibrant and incisive, with spirited debate about the policies of President Un. 
 
 The last straw came during the elections. Those 98 % turnout numbers that we'd heard about? Not a lie: these people willingly lined up around the block to have their voice heard in government. None of these ghost town polling places that America had. I went back to my hotel room; I needed to lay down for a while. 
 
 I burrowed into my silky sheets, trying to come to terms with this strange country that had been so misrepresented. On a whim, I flicked on the television. North Korea had hundreds of channels for free, so it took a bit of searching, but eventually I found CNN. The headline flashed across the screen: 
 
 `` American journalist missing in North Korea; presumed dead or imprisoned.'' Below that, my photo.
