unprecedented: CNN goes internal North Korea's secretive Congress - CNN

For days, a CNN crew in Pyongyang has pushed for access to the employees' celebration Congress -- a enormous political experience that hasn't took place in 36 years.

more than one hundred journalists from all over the world came to do the identical component. it be been a week of disappointment. The closest we came become shooting the constructing from throughout the street.

That modified Monday, when executive officials whisked away a small neighborhood of 30 journalists -- together with myself and photojournalist Charlie Miller.

We don't know why they selected us. They failed to inform us where we had been going, but informed us to get our matches and ties -- and produce our passports.

excessive security

We boarded buses that ultimately took us to the "April 25 condo of way of life," a giant conference core the place 3,400 delegates had gathered for the employees' birthday party Congress.

They were ready not only for us, of path, however for leader Kim Jong Un.

safety, as which you could think about, changed into beyond strict. Authorities patted us down and took our mobile phones away. We could not take our instant microphones or even our spare batteries.

The total protection process took 90 minutes. at last, we have been allowed inside the employees' party Congress -- the primary time any Western journalists had been allowed to do so.

A historical come upon

The walk to the Congress' auditorium is lined with ornate marble columns and an extravagant escalator. We have been warned not to bump our tripod on the immaculate escalator.

As we entered the auditorium, we immediately realized we had been no longer the most effective ones filming. North Korean state-run television became also filming us, most likely to show how critical the Congress become to the relaxation of the world.

it's additionally viable they wanted citizens to suppose much less isolated and maybe more connected to the rest of the area.

As we walked internal the auditorium, 5,000 heads grew to become. Some seemed bemused. Others, stone-confronted.

The silence turned into broken best through the widely wide-spread tune that plays every time the nation's "supreme chief" is about to enter.

all at once, everyone clapped and shouted in best unison. They did so for a couple of minutes.

Then Kim -- wearing a suit, grey tie and glasses -- made his entrance.

Our minders gave us 10 minutes to shoot something we wanted -- except for closeups of the delegates' notebooks.

Then we had been briskly ushered away.

We still noticed no transparency on how the vote casting labored. What we do recognize is that the three,400 delegates, who had been joined with the aid of 1,500 or so alternates, always vote unanimously.

And in this once-in-a-technology Congress, Kim changed into elected chairman of the staff' celebration. by some means, he become given even more vigor than he already had.

Challenges covering North Korea

here's my tenth reporting go back and forth to North Korea, and i'm not afraid to record records that are crucial of the nation or its chief, even when i am interior the country.

but North Korean officers have strongly reprimanded me for my reporting.

whereas I've on no account deleted video or allowed North Korean officers to view reports in boost, there are still restrictions.

The government commonly directs when the digicam may also be used and where it may also be pointed, hindering the capacity to flow freely in regards to the nation.

however because the unanimous voting in aid of Kim confirmed, here is no longer a govt that looks to be crumbling anytime quickly.