• Luca Pferdmenges visited North Korea as one of the first Western tourists there in five years.
• He told BI it was surprising that the tour guides didn't try to hide the country's poverty.
• The influencer has visited almost every country in the world — he has just two more to go.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Luca Pferdmenges, a 23-year-old German travel influencer who was among the first Western tourists to visit North Korea since 2020. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I've wanted to visit North Korea for a long time. I'm two countries away from my goal of visiting every country in the world, and for me, it's about giving every place a chance, even if I hate the politics.

Going there, there were lots of rules to follow and moments that felt quite staged, but what surprised me most was that they didn't hide the country's visible poverty.

Entering North Korea

There have been a few false starts in the past, but two weeks ago, Koryo Tours set up a WhatsApp group for travelers flexible enough to enter North Korea on short notice.

I was in Lisbon when I got the confirmation. I would be among the first foreign tourists allowed back after a five-year hiatus, as long as I could reach Quanhe in China in time.

With just two days to plan it, I flew from Lisbon to Dubai, then onto Beijing, and finally to Quanhe.

I was nervous about the border crossing from China into North Korea, because you don't really know what to expect. They can pretty much do whatever they want with you, including going through all the photos on your phone.

Some people got their phones checked, but I didn't.

When we crossed the border, you could tell that it wasn't really a routine procedure for them, because the border had been closed for five years. It was all a bit improvised, but it worked out.

Once inside North Korea, a few things immediately stood out. There are no advertisements anywhere — not even in the cities. Instead, it's just propaganda posters, portraits of the leaders, and flags.

I was also surprised that COVID-19 is still such a big deal there. About 80% of the people I saw wore masks, and every bag entering the country had to go through a disinfecting machine.

'It felt an awful lot like a school trip'

Everything on a North Korean tour is very, very organized, with strict rules to follow.

Some are obvious — like not speaking badly about the leaders. There are also more persnickety rules that you may not be aware of, like the requirement that whenever you take a photo of any statues of the leaders, everything needs to be completely in the frame — no cropping or zooming in on anything.

It felt an awful lot like a school trip. Everyone is on a bus, with assigned seats and the guide never leaves you.

Over five days, we did a lot of random things: climbing a mountain, visiting a shopping center, and touring a foreign language school.

In the school, the teacher pretty much read a script when we entered the classroom.

We also visited the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. It's a whole routine: You have to buy plastic flowers to show your respect.

Seeing the poverty

The Rason region is poorer than Pyongyang, the capital, which is still closed to most foreigners, and as we traveled from place to place, we saw the poverty.

People in the rural areas were clearly very poor, and we weren't allowed to photograph them. Many of them were using oxen and carriages.

Our guides also very strictly told us not to photograph the farmers' houses in the countryside because they are very run-down and shabby.

Surprisingly, they didn't close the curtains so we couldn't see it. The guides also didn't deny that there is poverty; they just don't like people taking photos of it and presenting it as the sole truth.

That being said, if you have a good job and relative privilege, you can get a phone and access the local internet. They even have an app store where you can download the Korean version of Western games.

I was very surprised to learn that there's a North Korean version of "Clash of Clans."

A visit to a pharmacy

The tour itself was surprisingly affordable — about $740 in total, including a night in China and most of the food.

North Korea is quite cheap for Westerners, and the hotel was actually really good.

On occasion, we had some unexpectedly authentic interactions with the locals, like when we visited a pharmacy. They were largely confused about why we were there; they'd probably never seen a foreigner before.

Visiting a pharmacy may not seem like a typical tourist activity, but the country is eager to showcase the parts that function well.

People think of China as this really oppressive state where everything is controlled, but, to us, it felt like entering the free world again. We could leave the bus and go wherever we wanted, which really puts things into perspective.

Everyone has an opinion about North Korea, and it's so different from any other place in the world. But I saw a North Korea that wasn't just black and white.

I'd definitely go back because it's one of those places that you leave with more questions than you previously had.

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• Sales at Kohl's fell in Q3, which CEO Tom Kingsbury called "frankly disappointing."
• I visited a Kohl's store in New Jersey to see how the chain plans to bounce back.
• The store's layout showed how Kohl's is centering its partnership with Sephora to boost sales.

In 2018, Kohl's was hailed as a "winner of the retail apocalypse," boasting strong sales over its struggling counterparts like Sears and JCPenney.

Now, Kohl's is feeling the strain. Its third-quarter earnings report found that net sales decreased 8.8% and comparable sales fell 9.3%. .

"We are not satisfied with our performance in 2024 and are taking aggressive action to reverse the sales declines," CEO Tom Kingsbury said in the report.

Kingsbury announced he would step down as CEO effective January 15 and will be replaced by Ashley Buchanan, a Kohl's board member and CEO of Michael's.

On Thursday, Kohl's also announced it would close 27 underperforming locations by April as the brand continues to build on its "long-term growth strategy."

I visited a Kohl's store ahead of the holidays in December, one of the busiest shopping seasons, to see what Kohl's was doing to boost sales.

Representatives for Kohl's did not respond to a request for comment.

At the Kohl's store I visited in Clifton, New Jersey, Sephora was prominently advertised with its own branded entrance.

Kohl's has more than 1,150 locations in 49 states. While there are Kohl's stores in the greater New York City area, including in Brooklyn and Yonkers, there aren't any in Manhattan.

Kohl's announced its partnership with Sephora in 2020. By 2023, 910 Kohl's locations had added Sephora stores, and the retail chain built 140 more Sephora stores at Kohl's in 2024.

In 2023, Sephora sales at Kohl's totaled $1.4 billion, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Sales are projected to hit $2 billion by 2025.

A sign advertised an ongoing customer appreciation event with extra sales.

Kohl's Rewards members and Kohl's cardholders received extra discounts.

The entrance I chose led me into the juniors section, which was strategically located right in front of Sephora.

The juniors section sold flared leggings, bralettes, and other styles popular with Gen Z.

Sephora seemed to serve as the centerpiece of the store with prominent placement in the middle of the aisles.

The Sephora was constructed like a store within a store, similar to smaller shops located in a mall.

With celebrity beauty brands laid out in colorful displays under bright lighting, I felt drawn into the small-format Sephora like a moth to a flame.

The aisles were full of makeup brands like Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna.

An assortment of fine jewelry with lab-grown diamonds was displayed around the corner from Sephora.

On a June earnings call, Kingsbury said the retailer had removed some jewelry from stores to make room for Sephora locations since jewelry sales had been steadily declining.

He said Kohl's planned to add more accessories like jewelry back into stores in time for the holidays and place them near Sephora in an effort to boost sales.

There were also cheaper jewelry options nearby, such as Lauren Conrad's LC line.

The items ranged between $7 and $15, while most of the fine jewelry items displayed nearby cost around $100.

I was impressed by the wide selection of dresses at Kohl's, ranging from office looks to black-tie gowns.

Kingsbury told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in September that Kohl's locations with more space for dresses were "performing better" than other locations.

To me, the black-tie dresses in particular made Kohl's feel more like a department store than a big-box retailer.

Kohl's featured inclusive sizing, with sections for women's plus size, women's petite, and men's big and tall.

Kohl's also carries a line of adaptive clothing designed for accessibility. I appreciated how the store catered to a wide customer base.

However, much of the store felt understated in comparison to Sephora.

Women's flannel shirts were on sale for $24.99 — the same as they cost at Target, but more expensive than Walmart, where similar shirts cost between $5 and $15. I also didn't find the clothing displays particularly engaging compared to Sephora's luminous shelves and eye-catching photos.

The selection of home decor at Kohl's didn't seem as large as I've seen at big-box retailers like Walmart and Target.

The items were organized by color, which I found visually appealing. I also enjoyed the wooden roof displayed over the home decor section, which made it easy to spot and identify from a distance.

Kohl's Q3 earnings report found that home decor was a "key growth area" that experienced a "strong collective performance" despite the overall slump.

I was puzzled by a housewares section that featured aisles of slow cookers, vacuums, and suitcases next to each other.

Centering the juniors and jewelry sections around Sephora's beauty products made sense to me, but these items all seemed like they belonged in different parts of the store. Perhaps it was a space issue, or maybe Kohl's is still playing around with store layouts that drive more sales.

Kohl's hopes to replicate the success of its Sephora partnership through another partnership with Babies "R" Us.

In October, Kohl's launched a digital baby registry service through Babies "R" Us to boost sales of baby gear, which has been a top seller.

On the Q3 earnings call, Kingsbury said that while Kohl's had "benefited" from opening Babies "R" Us shops in 200 stores, these additions were still "unable to offset the declines in our core business."

In a section titled "The Toy Box," boxes of Hot Wheels tracks, Lego sets, and Mr. Potato Heads were piled on the floor.

This could have been a stylistic choice, but it did make me think of Business Insider senior correspondent Emily Stewart's story about how store aisles crowded with boxes are a sign of the retail apocalypse.

As I headed toward the checkout counters, I saw a self-pickup section full of orders — another method of increasing sales.

Kohl's launched self-pickup in all of its locations in 2022.

The line for staffed checkout counters was about 10 customers deep, but there was no line for self-checkout.

The staffed checkout counters may have had a longer line because of people making returns.

It remains to be seen if Kohl's strategies will help the brand avoid further decline and closures.

By leaning into partnerships with Sephora and Babies "R" Us and thinking strategically about store layouts, Kohl's hopes to drive enough business to sustain its core brand and reverse its sales slump.