In a photo taken on April 14, 2019 tourists from China pose for photos before the Three Charters monument in Pyongyang. Ordinary Chinese pay travel companies around 2,500 yuan (360 US dollars) for a standard three-day trip to North Korea, arriving overland by train in Pyongyang to tour the capital's highlights, from the Arch of Triumph to Kim Il Sung Square. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In this Sunday, February 3, 2019, photo, people ride on a stand on the side walk as they wait for tram in Pyongyang, North Korea. Pyongyang is upgrading its overcrowded mass transit system with brand new subway cars, trams and buses in a campaign meant to show leader Kim Jong Un is raising the country's standard of living. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this Friday, February 1, 2019, photo, a worker tend to her station at Ryuwon Shoe Factory that specializes in sports footwear, in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korean pop culture, long dismissed by critics as a kitschy throwback to the dark days of Stalinism, is getting a major upgrade under leader Kim Jong Un. The changes are being seen in everything from television dramas and animation programs to the variety and packaging of consumer goods, which have improved significantly under Kim. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 23, 2018, file photo, tourists visit Mount Kumgang in North Korea. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will likely be all smiles as they shake hands later this week in Hanoi for a meeting meant to put flesh on what many critics call their frustratingly vague first summit in Singapore. But behind the grins is a swirl of competing goals and fears. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





North Koreans ride on a crowded tram in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, February 3, 2019. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this December 20, 2018 photo, light designer Kim Yong Il smiles during an interview with the Associated Press as his creation, the light show displaying propaganda messages on the facade of the pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel, is seen in the background in Pyongyang, North Korea. For several hours each night, the building that doesn't have electricity inside becomes the backdrop of a massive light show in which more than 100,000 LEDs flash images of famous statues and monuments, bursts of fireworks, party symbols and political slogans. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





Women dancing after voting in a local assembly election in Pyongyang, North Korea on July 21, 2019. (Photo by Yevgeny Agoshkov/TASS)





Farmers transplant rice seedlings in a field in Chongsan-ri, Kangso district, Nampho, North Korea, Sunday, May 12, 2019. (Photo by Cha Song Ho/AP Photo)





North Korean students read the Rodong Sinmun newspaper coverage of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un visiting Vietnam for a summit in Hanoi with US President Donald Trump, on Kim Il Sung square Pyongyang on February 28, 2019. The US-North Korea nuclear summit in Hanoi ended abruptly without a deal, with President Donald Trump saying he had decided to “walk” in the face of Kim Jong Un's demands to drop sanctions. (Photo by Kim Won Jin/AFP Photo)





Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers wait to pay their respects before the statues of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as the country marks the 25th anniversary of death of Kim Il Sung, at Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on July 8, 2019. (Photo by Kim Won Jin/AFP Photo)





A photo taken on June 4, 2019 shows performers during a “Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance”, or mass games, at the May Day stadium in Pyongyang. The “Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance” features enormous numbers of people – mostly students and children – performing synchronised moves. Tens of thousands of performers in Pyongyang took part in the first of North Korea's spectacular “Mass Games” propaganda displays for 2019, but the show left leader Kim Jong Un unimpressed. (Photo by Kim Won Jin/AFP Photo)





Dancers perform outside a voting centre at the “Pyonyang number four Primary School” during voting for the Supreme People's Assembly elections, in Pyongyang on March 10, 2019. North Koreans went to the polls for an election in which there could be only one winner. Leader Kim Jong Un's ruling Workers' Party has an iron grip on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the isolated, nuclear-armed country is officially known. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





A bride and groom pose on a seesaw during a wedding photo shoot at a park in Pyongyang on April 18, 2019. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In a photo taken on June 16, 2019 a fisherman stands on a bank of the Taedong river and a bloom of algae in Pyongyang. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In a photo taken on June 16, 2019 swimmers rest beside a wave pool at the Munsu water park in Pyongyang. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In this December 15, 2018, photo, young joggers pass by as smokes billows from the stack of the Pyongyang Power Plant in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is exploring two ambitious alternative energy sources, tidal power and the production of coal-based synthetic fuels, that could greatly improve its standard of living while reducing its reliance on oil imports and vulnerability to sanctions. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In a photo taken on September 11, 2019, North Korean students pose for photos in Chonji lake, or “Heaven lake”, as they visit the crater of Mount Paektu, near Samjiyon. Mount Paektu has long been considered the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation and is a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of North Koreans every year, who are trained from birth to revere their leaders. Every year 100,000 North Koreans or more are taken on study tours to the camp, the mountain, and nearby revolutionary sites where relics of operations are preserved. Dressing in khaki uniforms said to resemble guerrillas' outfits and carrying red flags, they march to the summit of the volcano. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In a photo taken on September 11, 2019, North Korean students pose for photos as they march to the summit of Mount Paektu, near Samjiyon. Mount Paektu has long been considered the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation and is a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of North Koreans every year, who are trained from birth to revere their leaders. Every year 100,000 North Koreans or more are taken on study tours to the camp, the mountain, and nearby revolutionary sites where relics of operations are preserved. Dressing in khaki uniforms said to resemble guerrillas' outfits and carrying red flags, they march to the summit of the volcano. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In this Friday, February 1, 2019, photo, a guide stands near a basketball shoe display in a product exhibition room at the Ryuwon Shoe Factory that specializes in sports footwear, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)