Cambodia a canvas for North Korea's grand masters

Cambodians look at a painting in the new museum built by North Korea in Siem Reap.

Siem Reap (Cambodia) (AFP) - In a vast parking lot outside Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples complex stands a new museum built by North Korea, part of a lucrative charm offensive by a hermit state exporting its monumental art to a handful of foreign allies.

"When people come here sometimes they cannot believe their eyes," beams Yit Chandaroat, of the Angkor Panorama Museum, which opened in December after a construction process shrouded in secrecy.