What I’d ask Jean Lee if I could

So Jean Lee is going to be at this event at the Woodrow Wilson Center in D.C. this afternoon, but I’m down with the flu. Assuming she takes questions, maybe one of you can ask instead.

1. Why did AP agree to co-sponsor “A joint exhibition by The Associated Press and the Korean Central News Agency Marking 100 Years Since the Birth of Kim Il Sung” that portrayed North Koreans as content, well-fed, and devoted to their leaders? In retrospect, can you see why that decision caused some of us to question AP’s objectivity? Will AP release the MOU in which it agreed to co-sponsor that exhibition?

2. After you left Pyongyang as Bureau Chief, an apartment building collapsed in downtown Pyongyang, no more than a 15-minute drive from the AP’s offices. If AP’s presence has been as transformational as AP has represented, why wasn’t AP able to report from the scene of the disaster, confirm or refute reports that hundreds died in the collapse, or report on the safety of other recent construction in Pyongyang?

3. While you were Bureau Chief, you wrote several reports on Ri Sol Ju’s tastes in fashion and entertainment. At the same time, some news sources were reporting that thousands of people in South Hamgyeong Province were dying of starvation following crop seizures by the government. Aside from this chaperoned tour of a model collective farm, what efforts did you make to get the North Korean government to allow you to confirm or refute the accuracy of those reports?

4. In 2012, AP reported the story of Pak Jong Suk, a North Korean woman who defected to South Korea and later returned to the North. At a “press conference” in Pyongyang, Pak said she had been tricked into defecting by South Korean intelligence agents. Reporters for the Donga-Ilbo and The Washington Post investigated the story and reported that Ms. Pak returned to Pyongyang after learning that her son and his family had been exiled to a remote province as punishment for her defection. Did AP ever investigate or question the story Ms. Pak told at her press conference? Also, were the KCNA “journalists” detailed to AP among those seen applauding Ms. Pak’s confession at the press conference?