SEOUL, March 11 -- North Korea's nominal head of state met Friday with the visiting president of The Associated Press (AP), according to the communist state's official media.
| Yup, the news agency that dare not be named... |
Thomas Curley, CEO of the U.S. newswire, has been in North Korea since Tuesday, and Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said this week that he asked the country to allow the opening of an AP bureau in the capital, Pyongyang.
| Why not just pull the news from the KCNA wire? |
North Korea's official media have yet to report on why Curley was visiting the country but said the AP delegation has left the country.
A source in Seoul had told Yonhap News Agency that Curley was expected to stay in Pyongyang until Friday. While Kim Yong-nam represents the North in official events, Kim Jong-il, 69, essentially rules the country with an iron fist.
Among foreign news agencies, only Itar-Tass and China's Xinhua have bureaus in Pyongyang, while a journalist from the People's Daily newspaper of China is also based there.
Itar-Tass on Thursday said officials from Reuters, the London-based news agency, also visited Pyongyang earlier with a similar request.
| Couldn't Reuters make up news from a more comfortable city? One with flesh-pots and full-service bars? |
AP Television News, the international video division of AP, opened a full-time office in Pyongyang in 2006, making it the first Western news organization to establish a permanent presence in North Korea. The Pyongyang office of APTN currently provides only video images.
| I'm surprised CNN didn't beat them there. |
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