Breaking away from the gaggle of foreign reporters allowed into the country for the festivities, we ate traditional North Korean fare for lunch. Afterward, we wandered along the scenic Taedong River, stopping to chat with families picnicking along its grassy, willow-lined banks.
Read MoreAP: North Korea's Rooney Loves His Cars, Clothes and Rap →
He plays like Rooney but behaves a little like Beckham. He loves his cars, his rap music and his clothes, and changes hairstyles more often than you can say "Kim Jong Il."North Korea striker Jong Tae Se is not your average North Korean.
Read MoreAP: NKorea's An wants revenge for '66 loss to Portugal
North Korea's An Yong Hak knows exactly what he wants from his team's upcoming World Cup match with Portugal. "Revenge. We'll try to get revenge for 1966," the lanky midfielder said with a grin, speaking to reporters before a training session Thursday at Makhulong Stadium in the township of Tembisa.
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AP: At World Cup, North Korean team goes under cover →
A week after arriving for the World Cup, the North Korean team remains largely hidden from public view, sequestered behind the tightly guarded gates of a remote hotel in northern Johannesburg that seems to rise like a fortress from the South African veld.
No chance of a casual South African braai - barbecue - with fellow hotel guests: All meals, prepared by a cook flown in from Pyongyang, are closed to outsiders. And no chance for the players to stray from the group.
Read MoreAP: For the 2 Koreas, Joint Appearance at World Cup Turns Sour →
With both North and South Korea in the World Cup for the first time, many on this war-divided peninsula were hoping that sports could cross the border and unite people. But the sinking of a South Korean warship in March has shattered the mood and heightened tensions between the two nations, turning the World Cup into a missed opportunity less than a month before the games start.
Read MoreAP: American Sees Changes in His North Korean Hometown →
Daniel Chun peers out of the window of the Air Koryo turboprop from China as it touches down outside Pyongyang, his former home. It has taken him less than two hours to go back nearly 60 years.
Read MoreAP: Worry at Border as North Korea Restores Nuclear Reactor →
Dank and mossy, the "invasion" tunnels dug by North Korea beneath its border with the South are a grim reminder the two sides remain at war, locked in a tenuous, decades-long truce watched over by soldiers, tanks and barbed wire.
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Ski on a Glacier Amid the Breathtaking Views of France's Mont Blanc
AP: Ski on a Glacier Amid the Breathtaking Views of France's Mont Blanc →
After letting me ooh and ahh over the panoramic view from the safety of the observation deck of mountain peaks bobbing in a sea of fog and snow, my guide, Yann, strapped me into a harness.
Read MoreAP: From Doctor to Destitute: Retired Physician Lives on the Street →
orty years ago, Shannon Morgan was living the American dream. She had two talented children, a surgeon for a husband, a carriage house near Boston and an Ivy League medical degree.Today, at age 67, she is homeless.
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