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)

Staff of a boat restaurant on the Taedong River line up at the entrance as they wait to greet customers Sunday, June 18, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The boat is berthed along the river, which is the fifth longest river on the Korean Peninsula and runs through the country's capital, Pyongyang. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

Japanese Yuuka Hasumi, 17, and Ibuki Ito, 17, also from Japan, who want to become K-pop stars, perform at an Acopia School party in Seoul, South Korea, March 16, 2019. Acopia is a prep school offering young Japanese a shot at K-pop stardom, teaching them the dance moves, the songs and also the language. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

North Korean dance during an evening gala as they celebrate the country's 76th founding anniversary at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea Sunday, September 8, 2024. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

Embers remain among the debris after most of the buildings were burned to the ground in a wildfire at Gounsa Temple in Uiseong on March 26, 2025. At least 18 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple blazes burning and causing “unprecedented damage”, the acting president said. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

Students participate in a commemorative march near the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang on April 25, 2025, to mark the 93rd anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army. (Photo by Kim Won Jin/AFP Photo)

A couple wearing face masks rides a bicycle at a park in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 7, 2020. The number of infections of the COVID-19 disease spread around the globe. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

People visit the Mansu Hill to lay flowers to the bronze statues of late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the 108th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, April 15, 2020. (Photo by Alamy Live News)