AP photojournalist Maye-E Wong tried to capture authentic images of a North Korea different from what has long been imagined.
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| People at an amusement park in Pyongyang. In January 2012, the Associated Press opened a bureau in the North Korean capital and remains the only American news agency in the country. The agency covers a wide range of North Korean news. Maye-E Wong is a staff photographer for the agency. The AP is under strict control of the North Korean government. |
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| A group of people play volleyball at the Munsu Water Park. “Although North Koreans live in a closed society, they still have fun and enjoy the pleasures of life like any of us,” Wong wrote in an email. |
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| Primary school students perform during a piano lesson. Photojournalist Wong, who is from Singapore, travels to North Korea 10 days a month. She works with Eric Talmadge, AP bureau chief in Pyongyang. |
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| A soldier during a parade marking the 70th anniversary of the North Korean Communist Party. The photo was taken by Wong in July 2013. Before arriving in one of the world's most secretive countries, Wong found it difficult to imagine what life would be like there. |
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| A man rides a bicycle past the Labor Party Monument. AP reporters had to schedule visits for each event, pitching and negotiating with the government for each activity and area they wanted to visit. |
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| A female traffic police officer directs traffic on a street. “The biggest challenge of being a journalist in North Korea is that I can’t go wherever I want. We always have to be accompanied by a government guide,” said Wong. “I’m not allowed to walk around the streets alone and take photos.” |
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| Elementary school students play at the Songdowon International Summer Camp in a water park. The camp was started in the 1960s to promote relations between socialist countries. Wong said news headlines portray North Korea as a nuclear testing site or as a place where people are oppressed and have their human rights violated. They clearly do not represent what life is really like for people there. She hopes her photos will help readers see something more. |
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| North Korean soldiers attend a concert to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the party's rule of the country. Wong said that when she went to photograph events such as anniversaries, national founding days, or was invited to tour hospitals, schools, factories, etc., the programs were very well organized. Everything seemed perfect. There was hardly any misunderstanding. |
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| People bow before the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Munsu Hill during the 62nd anniversary of the armistice between the two Koreas on the Korean Peninsula. The female photojournalist said that finding moments of everyday life is not an easy job because the reporting and photography process is under strict control of the government. However, she, her colleagues and government officials all respect each other's profession. |
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| Fusion dance at Kim Il Sung Stadium. |
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| A woman waits outside a restaurant in the rain. AP photographers say North Koreans are often not used to having their photos taken on the streets, so sometimes she shoots from car windows. That way, Wong captures more candid moments. She also tries smaller cameras to keep her shots discreet. |
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| Children rollerblading in Kim Il Sung Square. This is one of the first photos Wong took in North Korea. “This is not at all what I expected to see here,” she said. |
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| Dancers perform in Kim Il Sung Square. |
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| A woman sweeps the steps of Kim Il Sung Square. “When I’m looking at the streets and taking pictures of North Koreans, sometimes they don’t understand why I’m doing this. They don’t find what they’re doing interesting enough to take a picture of,” Wong said. |
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| People watch fireworks in Pyongyang. "I feel like North Korea is frozen. A lot of their goods come from China, but they are all second-hand. The suburbs are very underdeveloped. But it's really beautiful and quiet," said AP photographer Wong. But he also said the North Korean capital has seen many positive changes. There are more taxis and traffic jams sometimes. |
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