New start?
January 16, 2012
News organization Associated Press opened a new bureau in the North Korean capital on Sunday, the first such office to be opened by a Western news agency in the isolated country.
The office will be located within the headquarters of the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in downtown Pyongyang and will employ two full-time North Korean journalists.
The North has remained largely off limits to foreign journalists for decades. AP President Tom Curley said the new bureau would allow the news provider to document the people, places and politics of North Korea across all media platforms at a critical moment in its history.
"Beyond this door lies a path to vastly larger understanding and cultural enrichment for millions around the world," Curley said. "Regardless of whether you were born in Pyongyang or Pennsylvania, you are aware of the bridge being created today."
North Korea recently saw a sudden transition of power when 29-year-old Kim Jong Un assumed the position of supreme leader following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.
Curley said the Pyongyang bureau would operate under the same standards and practices as AP bureaus worldwide.
"Everyone at the Associated Press takes his or her responsibilities of a free and fair press with utmost seriousness," he said. "We pledge to do our best to reflect accurately the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as well as what they do and say."
"The world knows very little about the DPRK, and this gives us a unique opportunity to bring the world news that it doesn't now have," Curley said.
Author: Darren Mara (AFP, AP)
Editor: Sarah Berning