Welcome to the best beach in North Korea! The smog-covered hell hole Kim Jong-un's citizens are brainwashed into thinking is one of the top tourist resorts on the planet

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This is the smog-covered hell hole Kim Jong-Un's citizens are brainwashed into thinking is one of the finest beach resorts on the planet.

North Korean guides describe 'excellent stretches' of 'pristine' sand at Majon, a suburb of Hamhung, North Korea's second biggest city with 800,000 people.

But the coastal city is also an industrial hub and one visitor, French photographer Eric Lafforgue, captured pictures of dense smog and 'alarming' yellow smoke pumping out of an chemical plant just minutes from the beach.

Sea air: Pictures have emerged of the smog-covered hell hole Kim Jong-Un's citizens are brainwashed into thinking is one of the finest beach resorts on the planet

Tempting: North Korean guides describe 'excellent stretches of pristine beach' at Majon, a suburb of Hamhung, North Korea's second biggest city with 800,000 people

The coastal city is also an industrial hub and one visitor, French photographer Eric Lafforgue, captured pictures of dense smog and 'alarming' yellow smoke pumping out of an chemical plant just ten minutes from the beach

Lafforgue said views from a hill top 'show a dull city surrounded by the smoke from the factory chimneys as Hamhung is home to the best beach in North Korea but is also an industrial city with many chemical complexes'

He said views from a hill top 'show a dull city surrounded by the smoke from the factory chimneys as Hamhung is home to the best beach in North Korea but is also an industrial city with many chemical complexes.'

He added: 'Everywhere we drive, we see factories when they are not hidden by the chimney smoke.'

Lafforgue said he was given a brochure that said: 'Majon, the resort in the suburbs of Hamhung and an industrial city'. 

Guides who escorted him on his trip insisted the air in the area was 'pure' - but Majon's beachfront hotel is situated under a mile from some of the chemical factories.

Luxury: At the beachfront hotel, the bathtub was already filled with water which had to be heated by immersing an electrical device in it

Room with a view: Pictures show the bleak looking beach front hotel which was just under a mile away from a chemical factory hub

A disco in the hotel ended at 9pm and the only foreign guests he met were working for the Red Cross and the European Commission

Lafforgue said he saw thick yellow smoke coming from the chimney of a fertilizer plant that his guide insisted on him visiting

The photographer said Hamhung is 'home to the best beach in North Korea but is also an industrial city with many chemical complexes'

He said: 'Outside the hotel entrance, a giant fresco shows Kim Il Sung talking with local fishermen on the shore. 

'The area is very famous for its fisheries. The fish is being dried everywhere and when you pass a residential building, you can smell it, mixed with the local chemical pollution. This is no holiday for your nose.'

He described hotel rooms as 'little chalets' with thin walls 'so you can share everything with your neighbours'.

Guests are told to take their shoes off and wear plastic slippers while the bathrooms have no running water. Lafforgue said the bathtub was already filled with water which had to be heated by immersing an electrical device in it.

After asking to go into town to find the best restaurant, he says his guide told him to stay at the hotel for dinner because 'all the restaurants are full tonight'.

Bleak: A brochure the photographer was given said Majon was 'the resort in the suburbs of Hamhung and an industrial city'

A group of young men walk along a paved area in foggy conditions in a beach resort described as North Korea's finest

Tasty: On his second night, he complained about the high price of the restaurant and low quality of food. Instead, his guide organised a meal of clams on the beach

The photographer described hotel rooms as 'little chalets' with thin walls 'so you can share everything with your neighbours'

However, the dining room was empty and he was cooked sea snails for five euros a piece - a bill he had to pay before being served.

A disco in the hotel ended at 9pm and the only foreign guests he met were working for the Red Cross and the European Commission.

He said: 'Most of the time, the people I met on vacation were part of a work group and the holidays they were enjoying were some kind of reward for the good work they did at their factory or farm. 

'Very few can afford the costs of transportation and lodging with the low salaries they receive. Getting the authorisations to leave their village also represents another challenge. You cannot move freely in North Korea, even when you are a local.'

The photographer said that the only foreign guests he met were working for the Red Cross and the European Commission

Guides told the French tourist that the air in the city was 'pure' - despite the presence of numerous chemical plants

Pictures show a sandy stretch of beach in Majon - but under a mile away there are a series of chemical plants and factories

Taking a dip: A woman and a boy stand on the beach after going for a swim in a North Korea's number one beach resort

A woman looks back towards the camera as she holds her bicycle outside the entrance to a run-down building in the city

Outside the beach front hotel's entrance, a giant fresco shows Kim Il Sung talking with local fishermen on the shore

Images show some of the many factories and chemical plants that lie close to the main stretch of beach at the resort

He said that on his second night, he complained about the high price of the restaurant and low quality of food. Instead, his guide organised a meal of clams on the beach.

'The shells are placed on the sand, then he pours some gasoline on them and lights a match,' he said. 'With the heat from the flames, the clams start opening up. The taste with the gasoline is disgusting, but for North Koreans, it is a feast. I offer my portion to my guide.

'As we leave, my guide tells me that the hotel was built by Dear Leader Kim Jong Il to show how much he loved his people and wanted them to be happy. Today, the only locals enjoying the beach are two shy children. Their father is waiting for them in his car on the parking lot, a brand new Mercedes. 

'By our standards, this is a 1.5 stars hotel. By North Korean standards, it is a luxury resort and the local people who used to come here were part of the elite.'

A worker cycles past a factory and a chimney belching out smoke at a beach resort considered by Pyongnyang among the finest in North Koreas

The photographer said he suspected that the factory he had been asked to visit had been made 'especially for tourists'

He said there were only two staff, a male and a female, working in a giant area of the factory with colourful pipes going in and out of huge machines making 'squeaky noises'

At one factory, the photographer said he saw people looking out at him from behind a window - but it had been made opaque with plastic

At the entrance to one of the factories, Lafforgue found an old newspaper that had been sun-faded for years. He said it looked 'like the only official newspaper the workers read in the Pyongyang subway on their way to work to learn about the glorious actions of the Dear Leaders'