'See', yes. Stop on the street and chat to? No.

Going about their daily business. Society is completely structured, so most go to work at the same time (there's a communal Pyongyang 'alarm' at 6am, much like a call to prayer in the middle east), have lunch together, etc. Still, many were walking the streets. More often than not, they would watch you intriguingly out of the corner of their eye, but keep on walking and try to act normal. Some would say hello in return. Those with children often love to show them off as most parents do. Young kids are a lot more carefree and wave and smile. The most interesting interactions were at a wedding in the park (quite fancy and elegant) getting our photos taken with the wedding party, the university where students could speak English, and in the hotel with shady characters. Oh also when the guides clearly didn't get the morning briefing of the mass youth military rally in the centre of town and when we came upon it accidentally, although there wasn't much interaction with the bus quickly doing a U-ey.

Not many. The shops we were allowed/supposed to go in were clearly only for foreigners and they were more like museums of items with prices. Any drugs you want by the way. Vancomycin over the counter anyone? I sneaked into a local corner shop on two occasions. Random items, sparse shelves, dreary and freezing cold with no lighting. What a horrible way to live - i'd rather grow my own in a patch. But... beer is plentiful!

Quiet? For a city of 3 million unbelievably so. Something i couldn't work out - the subway is clean, 'Soviet modern', seems efficient, yet is not overly patronised while the decrepit trolleybuses and trams go past packed like a Tokyo subway train with faces pressing on the glass. Price difference perhaps?