Japans’ Kyodo News is set to open a bureau in North Korea next month.

The news agency said Thursday it will open a bureau in Pyongyang next Friday, becoming the first Japanese news organization to establish a bureau in the communist state.

The head of Kyodo's China General Bureau will concurrently serve as head of the Pyongyang office. Kyodo will not station permanent reporters at the bureau for the time being and instead send its reporters stationed in Beijing and Tokyo to the North when deemed necessary.

Currently, China’s Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily as well as Russia’s Itar-Tass News Agency have set up bureaus in Pyongyang.

In May, AP Television News, affiliated with the Associated Press of the United States, also opened a full-time office in the North’s capital.

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