Photos:: A tour of the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory

A worker guides a copper plate into a machine that melts it and spins it into cable form at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory.

Ri Song Il, 50, who said he had worked at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory for 25 years. His salary is 300,000 won per month. At the unofficial exchange rate of 8,000 won to the dollar, that’s $37.50 a month. A bicycle at a Pyongyang department store costs about twice that much.

A control panel at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory.

A control console on the factory floor at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory.

Tools at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory.

A machine with open gears on the factory floor at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory.

The well-manicured soccer field in front of the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory. Men were playing soccer at 2 in the afternoon, though it was a workday.

A mural, left, that shows North Korean founder Kim Il Sung visiting the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory. The mural at right shows his son and successor Kim Jong Il visiting the factory. The plant is named the 326 Electric Cable Factory because the two Kims visited the factory together on March 26, 1968. Many places in North Korea are given such names to affiliate them with the regime’s cult of personality.

A mosaic outside the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory showcases North Korea’s rocket technology and industrial prowess. “Towards the world!” It reads.

A bulletin board shows a “model worker” from the 1980s at the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory.

A piece of propaganda art outside the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable Factory. The poster exhorts workers to work hard ahead of the party congress. Depicted on poster are skyscrapers from the new “Future Science Street” in Pyongyang, a residential district for scientists and professors that was built at the behest of Kim Jong Un. “Let us greet the 7th Workers Party Congress with a high sense of political enthusiasm and brilliant labor achievements.”