In this Thursday, February 1, 2018, photo, a boy enjoys ice skating at the Outdoor Skating Rink in Pyongyang, North Korea. Though not known as a winter sports power, North Korea will be joining in the Pyeongchang Games set to begin on Feb. 9. (Photo by Eric Talmadge/AP Photo)





North Korean soldiers pose for a photo in the North side while U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo visit the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea Friday, October 27, 2017. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP Photo)





North Koreans enjoy the concert on April 3, 2018 in Pyongyang, North Korea. South Korean musicians, 160 members in total performed in Pyongyang ahead of the historic inter-Korean summit scheduled for late April. (Photo by Korea Pool/Getty Images)





North Koreans perform to celebrate the birth anniversary of late leader Kim Jong Il at the swimming pool of the Changgwang Health Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, February 15, 2018. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)





Students participate in a “mass dance” event outside the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium in Pyongyang on April 9, 2018. Thousands of North Koreans gathered in locations across Pyongyang to dance celebration of late leader Kim Jong Il. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





Visitors browse the 20 th “Kimilsungia” festival flower show in Pyongyang on April 13, 2018. When nuclear- armed North Korea put on a flower show last year to mark the birthday of its founder Kim Il Sung, it included scale models of rockets. But taking pride of place at the national security ministry stand this year is a plant with a record 49 bloom. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





This photo taken on November 21, 2017 shows a general view of a public sqaure in Rason At the northeastern tip of North Korea, where the isolated, nuclear- armed country meets its giant neighbours China and Russia, United Nations sanctions on the regime over its weapons programmes are having an impact. And with the North facing further sanctions following its ICBM missile test on November 29, things are unlikely to get any easier for traders involved with the remote region' s Rason Special Economic Zone (SEZ). (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





Female Korean People' s Army (KPA) soldiers gather after paying their respects before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, at Mansu hill in Pyongyang April 15, 2018. Thousands of North Korean devotees laid flowers before statues of the country' s founder Kim Il Sung on the anniversary of his birth. Current leader Kim Jong Un is the third of the dynasty to head the isolated, nuclear- armed country, where the calendar is packed with anniversaries relating to his two forefathers and their careers. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In a photo taken on September 25, 2017 barbeque chef Ryu Gyong Hui (23) poses for a portrait at her stall outside a trade fair in Pyongyang. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





In a photo taken on June 5, 2017 a traffic security officer stands on duty at an intersection in Pyongyang. Officially known as traffic security officers but universally referred to as traffic ladies, they are chosen for their looks in a society that remains traditionalist in many respects. They must leave the role if they marry, and have a finite shelf-life, with compulsory retirement looming at just 26. The 300-odd ladies are unique to Pyongyang, which North Korean authorities are always keen to present in the best possible light despite their nuclear-armed country's impoverished status, and ensure a steady supply of photogenic young women who are the favourite subject of visiting tourists and journalists. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





North Koreans children play as others gather on Kim Il Sung Square to celebrate the New Year on Monday, January 1, 2018, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)





Young figure skaters perform during a festival celebrating the upcoming birthday of leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, February 14, 2018. Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1941. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)





People react as they see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a military parade marking the 105th anniversary of the country's founding father Kim Il Sung's birth, in Pyongyang, North Korea, April 15, 2017. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





Celebratory dance festival takes place for the 100th birth anniversary of Kim Jong-suk and former leader Kim Jong-il's 26th anniversary of his inauguration as supreme commander of the Korean People's Army in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang December 24, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)





A North Korean traffic policewoman works in central Pyongyang October 15, 2005. (Photo by Reinhard Krause/Reuters)





A North Korean watchtower is photographed from the Chinese side of the Yalu River east of Linjiang, China, November 22, 2017. A week-long road trip along China's side of its border with North Korea showed places where it is porous. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





A ferris wheel, photographed from the Chinese side of the border across the Yalu River from Dandong in Liaoning Province, China is seen near the town of Sinuiju in North Korea, November 19, 2017. In the Chinese city of Dandong, signs of neighbouring North Korea are pervasive. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





A piece of clothing is used to make a gap in barbed wire near the closed bridge over the Yalu River on the Chinese side of the border with North Korea between towns of Ji'an and Linjiang, China, November 21, 2017. A week-long road trip along China's side of its border with North Korea showed places where it is porous. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





A North Korean man is photographed from the Chinese side of the border near the town of Changbai, China as he rides a bicycle along the Yalu River in the North Korean town of Hyesan, November 23, 2017. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





North Koreans are photographed from the Chinese side of the border as they stand in the freezing Yalu River near the town of Linjiang, China, November 22, 2017. On a road trip along China's side of its border with North Korea, reporters found a group of North Koreans diving in the Yalu river who the Chinese locals said were searching for gold. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





North Koreans are photographed from the Chinese side of the border as they stand next to the freezing Yalu River near the town of Linjiang, China, November 22, 2017. On a road trip along China's side of its border with North Korea, reporters found a group of North Koreans diving in the Yalu river who the Chinese locals said were searching for gold. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





A North Korean woman is photographed from the Chinese side of the Yalu River near the town of Changbai, China as she walks between houses in the North Korean town of Hyesan, November 23, 2017. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





North Korean women are photographed from the Chinese side of the border near the town of Changbai, China as they wash clothes in the frozen Yalu River near the North Korean town of Hyesan, November 23, 2017. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)





In this August 30, 2017 photo, North Korean men ride a makeshift raft made of fastened logs down the Yalu river that divides North Korea from the Chinese border town of Linjiang in northeastern China's Jilin province. North Korea is changing, quietly but powerfully, with the rise of the young ruler Kim Jong Un extending even to those secret trails, where business has turned bad for the small-time smugglers who long dominated the border. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)





Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers bow before statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il to mark the sixth anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-Il, at Mansu hill in Pyongyang on December 17, 2017. (Photo by Kim Won-Jin/AFP Photo)





Children fly kites during Lunar New Year festivities on Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang on February 16, 2018. (Photo by Kim Won-Jin/AFP Photo)





This file photo taken on August 11, 2017 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on August 12, 2017 shows North Korean youths and workers and trade union members holding a rally to protest the UN Security Council's “sanctions resolution” at the compound of the Monument to Party Founding in Pyongyang. The United States layered a new round of sanctions on North Korea on October 26, 2017, blacklisting individuals and organizations involved in security and forced labor policies for “ongoing and serious human rights abuses”. Amid the ongoing standoff over Pyongyang's threatening nuclear posture towards Japan and the United States, the US Treasury sought to boost pressure by placing the financial restrictions on seven senior officials and three state units. (Photo by AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS)





A North Korean man (bottom R) sells items to Chinese tourists on the Yalu river near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, in China's northeast Liaoning province on September 5, 2017. The US has accused North Korea of “begging for war" and pushed for the "strongest possible measures” on Pyongyang following its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. (Photo by Greg Baker/AFP Photo)





In a photo taken through the window of a car, North Korean students illuminated by a public television screen walk past the central station in Pyongyang on November 16, 2017. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)





Female staff members carry tea cups at the Pyongyang Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Saturday, March 31, 2018. From aging crooners to bubbly K-Pop starlets, some of South Korea's biggest pop stars flew to North Korea on Saturday for rare performances that highlight the sudden thaw in inter-Korean ties after years of tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions. (Photo by Korea Pool via AP Photo)