Photo Gallery A Rare Glimpse of North Korea
Most images the West sees of North Korea are propaganda shots. Press photographs, when they are allowed, typically face a barrage of restrictions. Jean H. Lee, the Associated Press Bureau Chief in Seoul, and David Guttenfelder, AP Photographer, were among the first western journalists allowed to travel freely in the capital Pyongyang. They were permitted to join a troop of local journalists, viewing society without the censorship of government representatives. The pictures taken in Spring 2011 reveal everyday life under a dictatorship. Here a young girl practices piano in her primary school.
Carefully choreographed: A North Korean children's choir.
Students swim at a swimming pool at the Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang.
As the sun sets on Central Pyongyang, North Korea.
Away from the concrete, hikers rest at a small pagoda along a trail on Mount Myohyang in North Korea.
A bowl of traditional North Korean cold noodles, known as Naengmyeon, is served on a restaurant table in Pyongyang.
A statue known as the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, which symbolizes the the hope for eventual reunification of the two Koreas, arches over a highway at the edge of Pyongyang.
A girl snaps a photo of her friends who were dancing at an event to mark the birthday of Kim Il Sung at a park in Pyongyang.
A packed tram carries passengers the city.
A member of a marching band has her photo taken with a woman and young boy at an event to mark the birthday of Kim Il Sung at a park in Pyongyang.
Adrenalin rush: visitors at an amusement park in the North Korean capital.
Children peer through a subway car window in Pyongyang. The AP photographer is obviously a surprising sight for subway car passengers.
North Korean traffic police officer stands beside an empty street in central Pyongyang.
Two North Korean soldiers smoke cigarettes on a street corner in Pyongyang.
A North Korean subway station.
Plates of food sit on a customer's table at a fast food restaurant inside an amusement park.
North Korean soldiers, foreground, and North Korean traffic police, background, tour the birthplace of Kim Il Sung to pay their respects at Mangyongdae, North Korea.
