With a U.S. soldier crossing the border into North Korea on the border city of Panmunjom and in custody this week, discuss turns to the nation itself — a rustic that’s identified for its suspicion of outsiders but additionally rejects frequent descriptions of it as reclusive.
In some methods, North Korea is a nation like many others; it is usually definitively its personal factor, generally strikingly totally different from the remainder of the world.
For six years till his death in 2019, longtime Related Press Asia correspondent Eric Talmadge was the information group’s Pyongyang bureau chief. In that function, with common entry uncommon for a journalist from the West, he wrote many tales that explored the nation’s tradition, politics and economics through the rule of third-generation chief Kim Jong Un.
Because the drama across the American soldier performs out, here’s a number of a few of Talmadge’s AP protection that pulls again the curtain on a society that few around the globe see.
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— The actual revolution in North Korea is the rise of consumer culture.
— This AP phrase cloud reveals the patterns in North Korean propaganda.
— Sure, canned soup could also be fueling North Korea’s air force.
— With its choices restricted, North Korea is lit by flashlights and a creaky grid.
— First particular person: How the Pyeongchang Olympics might feel to a North Korean.
— North Korean economics 101: How a lot is a dollar worth?
— Postcard from Pyongyang: The airport now has Wi-Fi, form of.
— Okay-pop and fancy sneakers: Kim Jong Un’s cultural revolution.
— Swedes keep a room ready for U.S. diplomats in Pyongyang.
— North Korea’s construction boom might construct greater than a skyline.
— North Korea learns to embrace its inner consumer.
— World’s tallest empty lodge lit up by North Korean propaganda.
Moreover, former AP Pyongyang photographer Wong Maye-E made this series of portraits of North Koreans that supply a glimpse into the nation’s folks and tradition.
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Discover extra AP North Korea information here. To see Talmadge’s Instagram pictures of North Korea, click on here.