This intriguing footage shows an Irishman high-fiving locals as he runs the Pyongyang Marathon after successfully smuggling the video out of the totalitarian state.
The 10km race is one of the rare occasions tourists flock to North Korea since the dictatorship allowed amateur foreigners to take part in 2014.
Musician Martin Faraway posted a video of him running April’s race on Facebook this week, claiming he had no trouble filming or exporting the footage.
He said: ‘Here’s a little video of the Pyongyang Marathon in North Korea from last April. Footage was taken on a GoPro so it’s very shaky.
‘I wasn’t told to stop filming nor was my camera checked when leaving the country.
‘Some friends and I completed the 10km run. It was a bizarre experience.
‘We did a three-day trip where we were shown everything they wanted us to see. I have more footage to upload soon!’
Musician Martin Faraway (pictured) ran the Pyongyang Marathon in April this year
The clip shows him running passed groups of spectators, high-fiving many of them as he goes.
Text then appears on the screen, reading: ‘People lined the streets to support the runners.
‘They do have phones but are not allowed to make international calls, obviously.’
The Irishman posted footage from the race earlier this week, claiming he had no trouble filming the video or getting it out of the country
The Irishman is pictured high-fiving North Korean spectators as he goes along, before the video cuts to him in a stadium
He then passes a group of children, who appear delighted to see him.
The race is called the Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon after the later North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s birthplace.
It starts and finishes in the stadium named after him, where Mr Faraway reveals there were 5,000 spectators watching.
The singer-songwriter reveals what it is like inside the Kim Il Sung Stadium, where the 10km race starts and finishes. Photographing officials inside the stadium is banned
Around 1,000 foreigners took part in this year’s race, which was opened up to non-North Koreans in 2014
He adds there is a football match going on at the same time, saying: ‘A football game added to the atmosphere.’
The singer-songwriter posted a preview still from the video a day earlier, saying: ‘Not many people in the world can say they high fived a bunch of North Koreans let alone got a picture of it. Pyongyang Marathon 2017, North Korea.’
This year’s marathon was the best-attended, with around 1,000 foreign runners taking part – strictly guarded by soldiers.
Brits are not banned from taking pictures but have to be extremely careful not to get any shots of military officials or statues of the country’s leaders.