A student stands under the portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il during a lecture at a teachers' training college during a government organised visit for foreign reporters in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 7, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





In this Tuesday, October 23, 2018, photo, a staff member closes the doors of a meeting room at the Kumgangsan Hotel at the Mount Kumgang resort area which was once a popular destination for South Korean tourists, in North Korea. A decade after the North-South experiment in tourism cooperation in Kumgang ended in bitter failure following the fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist in 2008, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in want to give it another try amid opposition from Washington. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 22, 2018 photo, a staff walks past wall painting depicting Kumgang Mountains at a restaurant at Mount Kumgang resort area in North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 23, 2018, photo, local tourists walk on the trail at Mount Kumgang, North Korea. At the height of South Korea's policy of engagement with the North, the “Diamond Mountain Resort” area was a symbol of cooperation. More than 2 million South Korean tourists came to visit and some of the South's biggest corporations poured more than a billion dollars into what they hoped would be a world-class travel destination. Today it's almost deserted after Seoul suspended all travel to Kumgang following the fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist in 2008. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 23, 2018, photo, a staff waits for customers at a souvenir shop at Mount Kumgang resort area in, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 23, 2018, photo, a woman rides her bicycle through the Mount Kumgang resort area in North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 23, 2018, photo, tourists visit Mount Kumgang in North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this Tuesday, October 23, 2018, photo, a woman has her photo taken in front of a painting of the sacred Mount Paektu, in the lobby of the Kumgangsan Hotel at the Mount Kumgang resort area in North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 23, 2018, photo, North Koreans walk on a highway that leads to the South Korean town of Sokcho at the Mount Kumgang, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 22, 2018 photo, a worker monitors the production of sweets at Songdowon General Foodstuffs Factory in Wonsan, North Korea. The factory produces cookies, crackers, candies and bakery goods, plus dozens of varieties of soft drinks, that are sold all across the country. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is waging a campaign to rally the nation behind his economic goals with on-the-spot guidance and calls for managers to step up their game. Though the international spotlight is on his nuclear talks with Washington, Kim has a lot riding domestically on making good on promises to boost the country’s economy and standard of living. And when the leader comes a calling, he has little patience for cadres lacking in “revolutionary spirit”. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 22, 2018, photo, a worker monitors the production of bottled beverage at Songdowon General Foodstuffs Factory in Wonsan, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





In this October 22, 2018, photo, Kwon Yong Chol, left, the chief engineer at the Songdowon General Foodstuffs Factory, shows samples of products at his facility in Wonsan, North Korea. Though the international spotlight has been on his denuclearization talks with Washington, the North Korean leader has a lot riding domestically on his promises to boost the country's economy and standard of living. His announcement in April that North Korea had sufficiently developed its nuclear weapons and would now focus on building its economy marked a sharp turn in official policy and set the stage for his rapid-fire meetings with the leaders of China, South Korea and the United States. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





Dancers perform during “The Glorious Country” mass games at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, October 25, 2018. North Korea has extended the run of the iconic mass games, which it revived last month to mark the country's 70th birthday. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





A North Korean boy takes cover during a snowball fight on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, where the winter season has started, on Sunday, December 16, 2018. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





This Tuesday, September 11, 2018, photo shows the Arch of Reunification, a monument to symbolize the hope for eventual reunification of the two Koreas, in Pyongyang, North Korea. While Pyongyang's talks with Washington over the future of Kim Jong Un's nuclear arsenal have bogged down, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is pushing hard to link the roads and railways of the two Koreas and to help improve the North's often decrepit infrastructure. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)





In this Saturday, October 27, 2018 photo, people walk past a propaganda banner that reads “Final victory! With science and technology we build our economic power” in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)





Commuters wait for a bus in central Pyongyang, North Korea, September 12, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





This photo taken on December 3, 2018 shows pedestrians walking past the portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il across Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





A soldier rides a bicycle along the Taedong river in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 12, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A man speaks on a phone at a restaurant in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 12, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A man rides past residential buildings in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 12, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Commuters travel in a bus in central Pyongyang, North Korea, September 12, 2018. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A member of North Korean military holds flowers to be laid at the bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mansu Hill Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, December 17, 2018. North Koreans are marking the seventh anniversary of the death of leader Kim Jong Il with visits to the statues and vows of loyalty to his son, Kim Jong Un. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)