Undercover in North Korea

North Korea is one of the most secretive societies in the world.

Access for journalists is tightly restricted. People who try to enter the country undercover can face serious penalties. Recently, two American documentary makers - Laura Ling and Euna Lee - were sentenced to 12 years hard labour for entering North Korea illegally.

Tomas van Houtryve managed to travel to North Korea and return without being caught. He's really a photo journalist but he pretended to be a businessman and visited the country as part of an official delegation.

Tomas changed his identity and posed as a chocolate making expert from Belgium. Although he almost got caught when he started to take too many photographs, he managed to convince the authorities that his cover story was genuine.

Tomas told Outlook's Matthew Bannister that he feels that visitors to North Korea can never really be sure what is real and what is being put on for display.