Looking for moments beneath North Korea’s ‘orchestrated pageantry’
People watch fireworks during celebrations for the 62nd anniversary of the Korean War armistice.People play an arcade game at the Kaeson Youth Park in Pyongyang, North Korea. ‘I try to look for moments beneath the surface and all the orchestrated pageantry,’ said Maye-E Wong, lead Associated Press photographer for North Korea.A group plays volleyball at the Munsu Water Park.Schoolchildren perform a song during an accordion class. Wong is from Singapore and travels to North Korea about once a month for 10 days at a time, and works with Eric Talmadge, the AP’s Pyongyang bureau chief and writer. They also work with a North Korean reporter and photographer.A soldier stands during a parade marking the 70th anniversary of the country’s ruling party.A man cycles past the Workers’ Party monument. In January 2012, the AP opened its first bureau in the capital, Pyongyang, and today it is the only US-based media organization that has been allowed to maintain a constant presence in North Korea.A police officer directs traffic. ‘The biggest challenge which I’ve had to accept is not being able to go where I want to go when I want to go there, because we must travel with a government guide,’ Wong said. ‘I can’t just walk on the street by myself with my camera and make photos.’Schoolchildren spend time at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp aquatic center. The camp originally opened in the 1960s and was intended to deepen relations with other communist and nonaligned countries.Military personnel attend a joint concert between the Moranbong Band and the State Merited Chorus during the 70th anniversary of the country’s ruling party.North Koreans bow in front of statues depicting the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Munsu Hill during celebrations for the 62nd anniversary of the Korean War armistice.Kids participate in a mass dance party at Kim Il Sung Stadium during celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War armistice.Soldiers build a structure at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.A woman waits outside a restaurant in the rain.Children Rollerblade in Kim Il Sung Square. This is one of the first photographs Wong shot in North Korea. ‘It definitely was not a scene I expected to see out of North Korea, since I feel Rollerblading is a very Western pastime,’ she said.Dancers perform at Kim Il Sung Square during a parade marking the 70th anniversary of the country’s ruling party.Schoolchildren visit the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities.
