A tour of a cosmetics factory was one of the items on the itinerary of foreign journalists invited to cover North Korea’s 70th founding anniversary. “If they don’t develop economically, the society is going to suffer more and that may even happen to the extent that it may destabilise the control the North Korean regime has over its people,” said Dr Graham Ong-Webb, Research Fellow at RSIS. “There is a front they want to portray to the rest of the world, that they are standing firmly on their feet, the economy is not about to tumble and the people are prospering,” said Dr Ong-Webb. “Then there’s the other front for the people who know North Korea, that there is a very harsh reality at play where people are really feeling the consequences right now of the global sanctions.”