Reporter Anna Fifield on covering North Korea, without getting turfed out

It was the kind of rare, exclusive invitation that you'd have a hard time declining — even if you know the event is going to be no fun at all. 

A group of Western journalists have been allowed in to North Korea to witness Kim Jong-un's historic Worker's Party Congress.

It will not surprise you to hear that things didn't go as planned. On Monday, a BBC reporter and his crew were detained for hours and then deported from the country.

Anna Fifield is a Washington Post journalist who is writing and tweeting about the congress. She has not been kicked out yet.

Here is part of Carol's conversation with her from Pyongyang, North Korea. 

CAROL OFF: So are you keeping your nose clean with the North Korean authorities? 

ANNE FIFIELD: Well, I like to think that I'm treading a fine line. There's plenty to be skeptical about here. A lot of the things that we have seen just don't seem to add up.

We were in a hospital the other day and I was asking them about whether sanctions had had an impact on their ability to get equipment.

They told me that they were now building their own domestically-produced X-ray machines. When I asked to see one of these — what do you know — they were in a different hospital.

So some of it just defies belief. You know it's clearly set up for our benefit.

CO: They took you out of the city to a farm. What was that all about?

AF: We went to this collective farm, just on the outskirts of Pyongyang. When I got there, it didn't quite feel right to me. It was very neat and orderly and it was not very dirty at all.

There were no people around. The kind of housing area where people live was completely dead. And when we went to the greenhouses, it seemed like there were not very many people around. So I left wondering exactly what I'd just seen. 

This was a very shiny farm. Paths were paved. Everything was neat. And I thought: that doesn't look like a real farm anywhere, especially not in North Korea.

CO: The highlight of the trip is that you were able to attend the party congress. This is quite unusual. What's the significance of the journalists who were chosen to be able to report on that event? 

AF: So we were all allowed into the country — like 130 journalists here — specifically for this congress. 
It's the first time in 36 years, the first time since the current leader Kim Jong-un has even been alive, that they've held one of these congresses. 

We were taken on the day that it opened to the outside of the building, like across the street, and that was as close as we got. So we did not get any access to the actual congress. 

But what did happen today is that a select group of journalists from here were taken to a press conference or to a little media briefing with some party members.

CO: I understand at this press conference, they weren't allowed to ask any questions.

AF:  Right. That's not usually our definition of a press conference. That's the North Korean version.

To hear more, take a listen to our full interview with Anne Fifield.