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)

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)

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)

A woman wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus gets fever checked before going into the Pyongyang Railway Station in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, August 13, 2020. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

A girl plays kayagum, stringed Korean harp, at the Tongmun kindergarten No.1 in Taedonggang District of Pyongyang, North Korea Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (Photo by Cha Song Ho/AP Photo)

In this photo taken Monday, March 5, 2018, s*x worker Irene sits in her brothel in Juba, South Sudan. As World Women's Day is to be marked across the globe and women across much of the Western world have galvanized around the #MeToo movement, South Sudan remains a place where women face grinding difficulties and rights experts say most women remain voiceless. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)