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dguttenfelder/via Instagram
The Associated Press’ photographer David Guttenfelder and reporter Jean Lee are posting Instagram videos from inside North Korea. Here, a North Korean woman works at a restaurant while a propaganda video plays on the TV screen behind her.
Instagramming from North Korea is proving to be just as grim as it sounds.
Associated Press photojournalist David Guttenfelder and reporter Jean Lee have been using the popular mobile app to record brief glimpses of everyday life in Kim Jong Un’s isolated nation.
Earlier this year, North Korea started allowing international visitors to access its pricey mobile Internet service, Koryolink. Its citizens can only use the new 3G service to make voice calls but foreigners can tweet and upload photos on the go.
Guttenfelder posted his first Instagram video Saturday. The panoramic shot zooms over an eerily dark Pyongyang.
Another video shows North Korean school children resting after a visit to the mausoleum where late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are lying in state.
The clips remind viewers of how deeply the military culture is embedded into people’s lives. Government propaganda can be seen on the sidewalk and on TV.
The country is currently gearing up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, which falls on July 27.
Students rehearsed a new war-themed rendition of the Arirang mass games song-and-dance performance, which opened Tuesday. Thousands of children flipped cardboard placards in unison, creating a dizzying display.
The North Korean government is expected to use Victory Day to draw attention to the division of the Korean Peninsula and to rally support for Kim Jong Un.
With the Associated Press
