Bicycle riders wait at the railway crossing.
According to North Korea News, bikes are sometimes illegal and sometimes encouraged. It is suspected that during the 1970s and 1980s, the North Korean authorities kept Pyongyang from hordes of cyclists, since it was the city most likely to be seen by foreign visitors. But this ban did not apply outside Pyongyang, so people could smoothly cruise on their bicycles more or less undisturbed. However, the situation changed when the Pyongjin Company had a joint venture with a Chinese firm, which began to produce bicycles.
