In this Wednesday, April 12, 2017, photo, waitresses wait outside a restaurant in Pyongyang, North Korea. A generational divide is quietly growing in North Korea, often hidden behind relentless propaganda. On the streets there are young women in not-quite mini-skirts and teenage boys with baseball hats cocked sideways, K-pop style. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A propaganda troupe perform a flag- waving routine outside the central railway station in Pyongyang, North Korea on September 27, 2017. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

A North Korean soldier kicks a pole along the bank of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, February 4, 2014. (Photo by Jacky Chen/Reuters)

Schoolchildren play music to entertain and inspire people on their way home from work Tuesday, March 29, 2016 in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea has called a 70-day loyalty drive areas of a major congress of the ruling party scheduled for early May and everyone from students to coal miners have been mobilized nationwide to demonstrate their devotion to the leadership. (Photo by Eric Talmadge/AP Photo)

A participant takes photographs of his friend while climbing up the stairs during Sky Run, a vertical marathon event, held in the 123-story Lotte World Tower, in Seoul, South Korea on April 22, 2023. (Photo by Kim Soo-hyeon/Reuters)

A woman directs traffic in the pouring rain in Pyongyang, North Korea on May 3, 2016. The city is preparing for the Workers' Party Congress starting on May 6th. It will be the first time since 1980 that the ruling party has convened. (Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

North Koreans perform during a mass game of “The Land of the People” at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2019. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

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)