North Korea has offered a rare glimpse of life inside its borders, after posting pictures on its new Facebook site of happy picnickers, grassy parks and colourful landmarks from across Pyongyang.

Even though few of its citizens have Internet access, as of 8:00pm (1100 GMT) today the North had made 391 Facebook "friends" after uploading about 100 pictures, video links and wallpostings as its foray into social media gathers pace.

Some pictures showed North Koreans smiling broadly, wearing colourful traditional clothes and picnicking in grassy parks in one of the world's most secretive nations.

Others captured landscapes and landmarks from across the capital -- manipulated to add vivid colours.

Video posts on its page railed against the South and exalted leader Kim Jong-Il, while its wall was littered with government statements and thumbs-up signs -- Facebook language for liking a posting. Most of the nation's friends were ethnic Koreans.

The North launched its Facebook page on Thursday, initially under the moniker "uriminzokkiri" -- which means "with us Koreans" and is the name used by its official website -- before it changed its profile name to "urimzok".

A link to its Facebook account was posted on its Twitter profile, which was opened two weeks ago under the name @uriminzok, allowing friends to post links barracking Seoul and Washington.