Image caption The new bureau will be staffed by two North Korean journalists and supervised from Seoul

The Associated Press news agency has formally opened a news bureau in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

It is the first major Western news organisation to do so, although agencies such as China's Xinhua also have a presence there.

AP president Tom Curley said the bureau would operate under the same standards as other bureaux worldwide.

All media outlets in North Korea are state-run. Most citizens have no access to the internet or foreign media.

Visits by most foreign journalists are severely restricted and, if granted a visa, reporters are accompanied by government minders to carefully selected locations.

AP said that the bureau would have two permanent North Korean reporters and would be supervised by two Seoul-based US journalists who would make regular visits.

The news agency first established a presence in Pyongyang in 2006, when it opened a video bureau.

The US and North Korea do not have formal diplomatic ties. But the president of state-run KCNA news agency, Kim Pyong-ho, said the two sides had "been able to find a way to understand one another and to cooperate closely enough to open an AP bureau".

The move comes a month after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. His third son, Kim Jong-un, has been installed as his successor.