After months of negotiation, the Associated Press opened a bureau in North Korea on Jan. 16, making it the first respected Western news organization to have a full-time presence in the Hermit Kingdom. Since that time, the Associated Press (AP) has filed around 20 stories with contributions from its journalists in Pyongyang. In December, AP’s relationship with the North allowed it to field the only Western journalist working inside North Korea in the days after leader Kim Jong Il’s death, shooting exclusive images of Kim’s body lying in state; additionally, the global news agency beat South Korea’s largest English-language wire service in announcing Kim’s passing.
Yet almost two months after opening, AP’s Pyongyang bureau still lacks Internet access, according to an AP senior managing editor, though the journalists can use the Internet elsewhere in the city.
Read the amazing story of how a news agency survives in a regime who deal exclusively in mis-information and secrecy.