In a ceremony that came less than a month after the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong Il and capped nearly a year of discussions, AP President and CEO Tom Curley and a delegation of top AP editors inaugurated the office, situated inside the headquarters of the state-run Korean Central News Agency in downtown Pyongyang.
The bureau expands the AP's presence in North Korea, building on the breakthrough in 2006 when AP opened a video bureau in Pyongyang for the first time by an international news organization. Exclusive video from AP video staffers in Pyongyang was used by media outlets around the world following Kim's death.
Now, AP writers and photojournalists will also be allowed to work in North Korea on a regular basis.
For North Korea, which for decades has remained largely off-limits to international journalists, the opening marked an important gesture, particularly because North Korea and the United States have never had formal diplomatic relations. The AP, an independent 165-year-old news cooperative founded in New York and owned by its U.S. newspaper membership, has operations in more than 100 countries and employs nearly 2,500 journalists across the world in 300 locations.
The bureau puts AP in a position to document the people, places and politics of North Korea across all media platforms at a critical moment in its history, with Kim's death and the ascension of his young son as the country's new leader, Curley said in remarks prepared for the opening.
"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."
Curley said the Pyongyang bureau will 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.
KCNA President Kim Pyong Ho called the occasion "a significant meeting."
"I believe that the reason we are able to conduct all these projects in less than a year is that President and CEO Thomas Curley and the other members of the AP have promised to report on the DPRK with fairness, balance and accuracy, and have tried to follow through in collaboration with KCNA," he said in remarks prepared to mark the occasion.
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