Why it looks like this

American bombing left almost nothing of old Pyongyang standing, so after 1953 North Korea rebuilt its capital as a total composition: Kim Il Sung Square facing the Juche Tower across the Taedong River, ceremonial boulevards wider than runways, and ranks of monumental apartment blocks placed for effect.

The map shows a city designed rather than grown — geometric set pieces along the river's bends, showpiece streets built in single campaigns, and monuments placed as the endpoints of long, deliberate views.