A traffic police officer directs vehicles at a street junction during sunset in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, August 25, 2016. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

Associated Press photographer Wong Maye-E tries to get her North Korean subjects to open up as much as is possible in an authoritarian country with no tolerance for dissent and great distrust of foreigners. She has taken dozens of portraits of North Koreans over the past three years, often after breaking the ice by taking photos with an instant camera and sharing them. Her question for everyone she photographs: What is your motto? Their answers reflect both their varied lives and the government that looms incessantly over all of them. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

People attend the New Year's eve gala of youth and students at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea Sunday, December 31, 2023. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

In this photo taken on April 14, 2022, people visit the Light Festival to celebrate the 110th birth anniversary of late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. (Photo by Kim Won Jin/AFP Photo)

People wear clothing to protect them from the heat while riding along a street in Hanoi, Vietnam, 24 April 2019. North and central Vietnam was recently affected by extreme hot weather, with the highest temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celcius, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA/EFE)

In this photo taken on February 21, 2017, shooting instructor Kim Su- Ryon poses for a portrait at the Meari Shooting Range in Pyongyang Kim is holding a “Paektusan” target pistol, gifted by late North Korean leader Kim Il- Sung. Visitors to the range can pay 10 USD to shoot ten rounds. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP 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. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

North Korean girls in similar bathing suits stand under a shower at the Songdowon International Children's Camp, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, in Wonsan, North Korea. The camp, which has been operating for nearly 30 years, was originally intended mainly to deepen relations with friendly countries in the Communist or non-aligned world. But officials say they are willing to accept youth from anywhere – even the United States. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)