Anna Fifield is the Financial Times’ correspondent in Seoul. She is in North Korea for two weeks and is writing an online journal available only on FT.com about her visit to and life in the isolated hermit state. This is the fourth entry of her online journal. Go to www.ft.com/pyongyangdiary for entries.

Advice passed from seasoned travellers to North Korea to first-timers goes something like this: Don’t take cigarettes made by US imperialists, don’t diss the Dear Leader, and don’t ever assume you are alone. Even when you are.