Photos: What today looked like, in North Korea

Journalistic images out of North Korea, especially ones depicting everyday life, hold a special fascination. It’s a combination of their relative rarity, and of the surprise in finding that, even in the most secluded country in the world, daily routines might resemble our own more than we’d expect.

On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, Singapore-based Associated Press photojournalist Wong Maye-E documented a day in North Korea, from the morning rituals before the opening of school to the nighttime entertainment for locals and visitors alike.

It’s a collection of seemingly fun and familiar moments that looks past the dystopian North Korea we’re used to seeing; a precious peek at what life in the Hermit Kingdom might actually be.

North Korean schoolgirls sweep the area in front of a stone structure with a speech by Kim Il Sung engraved on it.