After the death of King Jong Il five months ago Pyongyang seems primed for change. Western journalists have estimated that during Jong Il’s leadership, from 1994 until his death, three million people died of starvation and about 80% of all children suffered from malnutrition. There’s no doubt, however, that a country with the will to construct the immense towers and highways pictured in the guidebook can also carry out large scale, life-improving commercial and social projects. The sterility of the public landscape only suggests that there’s a more vital cultural and political life lurking underground. In the past year waves of popular protest have rattled, and even toppled, governments around the world. Maybe they’ll reach Pyongyang sometime soon.