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)

바버렛츠 (The Barberettes) – Barbara Ann (Cover of The Beach Boys). The Barberettes is a South Korean retro, doo-wop female group that debuted in 2014 as a trio, and is based in Seoul.

Kang Na-ra, a North Korean defector who is now a beauty YouTuber, points at her lips after putting on a lipstick made by North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, June 11, 2019. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

South Korean residents 89-year-old Jeong Nam-poong and 80-year-old Jang Yoon-hui , wearing protective masks, dance at park after their daytime discotheque “colatec” has been closed amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Seoul, South Korea, May 19, 2020. (Photo by Minwoo Park/Reuters)

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)

Young Russian women dance to the music of Soojin on the pedestrian of Nikolskaya street near Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 18, 2024. Seo Soo-jin, better known mononymously as Soojin, is a South Korean singer, dancer, and rapper, who has many fans in Russia. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

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)