In May 1972, The New York Times’s Harrison E. Salisbury and John M. Lee became the first American correspondents to visit North Korea since the end of the Korean War.

…or at least so they claimed: as a letter to the Times on May 27 pointed out, there had been visits in the 1960s by press from the American left.

Regardless, the two journalists would be for the next month providing the general American public with a glimpse into the “Hermit Kingdom.” They even managed to score an interview with the man himself: the respected and beloved leader, Comrade