Only foreign currency please - the costs of reporting from North Korea

FILE PHOTO: Passengers board an Air Koryo Antonov An-148-100B aircraft at the airport in Pyongyang, North Korea April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - North Korea rarely allows foreign correspondents into the country, but when it does, it makes them pay.

When Pyongyang invited 121 journalists to attend the birth anniversary celebrations of North Korea's founder-president, Kim Il Sung, just over a week ago, it was a great chance for the country to showcase its military might and present its socialist-realist propaganda to the world.