Jacky Chen / Reuters

A female North Korean soldier stands guard on the banks of the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, on Feb. 16. North Korea on Wednesday celebrated the birthday of its leader Kim Jong-il.

Media reporting inside North Korea is extremely difficult, and even photographers who visit the country on tourist visas struggle to escape their government minders. As a result, we see a lot of images like this one, taken with a long lens from the Chinese side of the Yalu River.

I'm not sure pictures like this will ever be able to tell us much about the country, but I do find it interesting when the photographer's gaze is returned, like it is here.