Museum chief executive Yit Chandaroat said it took a year to draw an outline of the huge mural. SAM WALKER

Standing in the middle of the Siem Reap Angkor Panorama Museum’s 360-degree oil painting and diorama is like being transported to another era.

Only the air-conditioned environment detracts from the surreal feeling of standing in the open air gazing out on an ancient empire and a landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see.

After years under construction, the $24 million North Korea-funded museum – which critics have warned is little more than a way for the communist dictatorship to get around economic sanctions – finally opened its doors last week.

Setting aside the controversial nature of the place, the centrepiece is pretty impressive. Some 123 metres around and 13 metres high, it depicts three different periods of the Angkorian empire – construction, prosperity and war.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/controversial-new-view-angkor-wat

What a laugh,you can go down the road and see the real thing for 20 bucks.

the $24 million North Korea-funded museum

Probably funded from the North Korean surplus in the budget item set aside for cheese purchases.

North Korea confirms its young dictator is 'suffering discomfort' after addiction to Swiss cheese revealed

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2770664/North-Korea-confirms-young-dictator-suffering-discomfort-addiction-Swiss-cheese-revealed.html

I wonder what the average starvng N. Korean would have to say about the $24M spent on this.... Probably about as much as they have to say about anything the psycho-in-chief does (without fear of "re-education", that is).

Maybe we should just all be grateful that at least $24M of the food aid they're getting is going for Cambodian museums instead of more military and nukes.

And Western governments only deal with benevolent democracies? I'd take my family to see it, when the kids are a bit older.

Lame attempts at deflection notwithstanding, KJU is certainly in a class by himself.