A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea on her phone

Chu took the long way around during her visit to North Korea.

Most Chinese tourists enter by train through Sinjiju or by plane through Pyongyang. She instead traveled to Russia so she could access the port at Tumangang.

The train ride from Tumangang to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, lasts a day. It was canceled because of a dispute between North Korea and South Korea.

"Fortunately we had a whole day to go out and take some pictures in the village," Chu says.

She saw scores of people living in abject poverty. Many begged for money.

"There are nearly no fat people in North Korea, everyone looks very thin," Chu says.

Many of the residential buildings looked run down and in need of repair.

When she later returned to the train station, she noticed portraits of the country's former leaders and the words "long live" scattered throughout.

At night, these shrines were the only structures lit up in the village. Other buildings were consumed by darkness.

The next day, she boarded a train for the nation's capital.

A customs agent on board checked her tablet to make sure it wasn't GPS-enabled. The government also jams signals as a security measure.

He also checked her laptop and DSLR camera. Chu says the agent had no trouble operating the devices — with the exception of the MacBook.

The train chugged along, giving Chu snapshots of everyday life. This boy was collecting corn cobs beside the tracks.

Many people rode bicycles, as seen at a railway crossing en route.

Some scenes were quaint. Children took an afternoon dip in a river.

But anytime the train pulled into a station, there were painful reminders of the poor living conditions. This little boy begged for money at a station in Hamhung.

Korean People's Army soldiers rested on the tracks.

Whenever she hopped out, Chu shot photos on her phone. "DSLR is too obvious to take pictures in that condition," she says, "as people in the village were extremely vigilant."

Several locals reported her to the police. "A policeman and a solider stopped us and checked our cell phone. I hid most of the pictures, [but a] few pictures were deleted," she says.

Tourism guidelines encourage visitors to take photos of the student exercise groups. These kids were rehearsing for a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Photography of anti-American protests is also welcomed. These students were marching against South Korea and the US.

Eventually, Chu reached the railway station in Pyongyang.

We asked Chu if she was scared of retribution for publishing her photos.

"No, absolutely not," she said.