The pictures Kim didn't want you to see: Journalist who smuggled photos out of North Korea after being arrested says THESE are the people who will suffer most if war breaks out

Gavin John, a 31-year-old photojournalist from Canada, took these photos in Pyongyang. This image shows citizens queuing for a bus, though Mr John believes some scenes were staged for the benefit of tourists. His images were released as North Korea accused the CIA of plotting with South Korea to assassinate the isolated country's leader Kim Jong-Un , amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region

Gavin John, a 31-year-old photojournalist from Canada, was arrested and almost jailed when he went to North Korea and attempted to get behind the facade the regime shows to tourists. Mr John said officials were particularly upset that he took images of people in military uniform relaxing, and threatened to jail him unless he surrendered all of his hard drives. Fortunately, he managed to keep hold of one, which he smuggled out. Despite detesting Kim Jong-un's regime, he said he fell in love with the North Korean people and does not want to see them suffer in a conflict.
Mr John ran into trouble with the authorities after he failed to declare that he was a journalist, and took pictures of the military relaxing, which is a highly sensitive subject for the regime. Pyongyang has issued increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense stand off with the Trump administration over its rogue weapons program

Life in North Korea is like 'stepping back in time to the Soviet Union', according to Mr John, who said propaganda adorns every wall in the place of advertising and national flags flutter from every building. North Korea conducted an annual military parade, featuring a display of missiles and overseen by top leader Kim Jong Un and his right-hand men on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later

While Mr John said he tried to get behind the North Korea facade with his images, there were occasions where he saw restaurants suddenly pack out with diners as his tour group went past where before they were empty. Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that North Korea might conduct its sixth nuclear test or test-launch another ballistic missile in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions