Longreads

Some insight into the workings of the newly-opened Associated Press bureau in North Korea:

"North Korea remains the world's most opaque country, in part because of the difficulty foreign journalists have working there. "It's unique in having walled itself off for so long," says Mike Chinoy, a former senior Asia correspondent for CNN who has visited North Korea 15 times. "Therefore the mere fact of a decision [to allow the opening of a bureau] must have been taken at a very high level, and to me that is very encouraging."

"AP's investment in opening a bureau in North Korea might ultimately pay off in having people in place if the country collapses. Beck thinks AP's motivation is the same as that of any foreign company trying to operate in North Korea. "First movers have the advantage," he says. (Daniszewski responds, "We don't predict events, but it's always better to have someone there to witness whatever should happen in the country.") When crisis hits North Korea, AP has "a foot in the door, so to say, and that is good," says Lankov. "But simply don't expect muckraking reports about Kim's family finances or interviews with closet dissenters."