The bureau's opening comes six years after Associated Press Television News established its own officer in North Korea six years ago. Now, AP will be able to offer coverage from the country in all formats, it says in a statement sent to BJP this morning.

"After fruitful discussions with the Korea Central News Agency over a number of months, AP is thrilled by this historic opportunity to provide coverage from North Korea for our global audience," AP president and CEO Tom Curley says in the statement.

And in remarks prepared for delivery at a Monday evening celebration of the bureau's opening, Kim Pyong Ho, president of KCNA, adds: "Even though our two countries do not have normalized relations, we have been able to find a way to understand one another and to cooperate closely enough to open an AP bureau here in Pyongyang as we have today. We are confident that the Pyongyang bureau will contribute to the improvement of relations between our two countries and to our understanding of one another by serving as AP's base for reporting objectively and without bias on the thriving nation we are building, our country's customs, culture and history, and important events in our country."

Jean H. Lee will become bureau chief, while chief Asia photographer David Guttenfelder will oversee photography operations in North Korea.

For more information, visit www.ap.org.