Ranking Eric Schmidt’s Pyongyang trip

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is back from Pyongyang. His visit made headlines around the world, but what about inside North Korea?

I took a look at the main 8pm evening news on North Korean TV to see where the visit ranked. Details of Eric Schmidt’s movements were reported on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Domestic news dominated the news both days, as it usually does. There were many items about workers across the country reacting to and supporting Kim Jong Un’s New Year address. The “Google delegation” news accounted for 30 seconds of the 10-minute bulletin on Wednesday, and 35 seconds of a 14-minute newscast on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the top news item was a 20 second item a booklet published in Russia about Kim Jong Un.

Here’s the rundown, according to BBC Monitoring:

  1. A booklet written by Kim Jong Un regarding Kim Jong Il’s work is published in Russia 
  2. Media in China, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Congo publish reports on the 21st anniversary of Kim Jong Il being elected the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army and the first anniversary of the same happening to Kim Jong Un
  3. The youth vangard hold a meeting to support the New Year address
  4. A propaganda slide is shown calling: “2013 Let Us Thoroughly Implement the Programmatic Task as Proposed in the New Year’s Address of Respected and Beloved Marshal Kim Jong Un!”
  5. Another propaganda slide: “”Let Us Open a Epoch-Making Phase of the Construction of an Economically Powerful State With the Spirit and the Vigor That Conquered Space!”
  6. A propaganda poster exhibition opens at Pyongyang International Cultural Hall
  7. The North Pyongan shock brigade is working on land reclamation
  8. Nampo Port workers are attempting to follow the New Year address
  9. Taedonggang Fruit General Processing Plant workers are attempting to follow the New Year address
  10. Workers from around the country are helping to support farming villages
  11. The Google delegation visits Kim Il Sung University e-library
  12. A statement is issued in Nepal congratulating the DPRK on its satellite launch
  13. A statement is issued in Germany congratulating the DPRK on its satellite launch

Here’s the report:

On January 9th, the top news was a report on gifts sent to Kim Jong Un from the President of Algeria via the DPRK’s embassy in that country. The “Google delegation” visit was ranked eleventh, after an item about a Chinese government economic delegation in the country. Both were several items behind a piece on manure delivery in Pyongyang.

Here’s the bulletin rundown, according to BBC Monitoring:

  1. Gifts sent to Kim Jong Un from the president of Algeria.
  2. Brazilian and Peruvian groups issue statements supporting Kim Jong Un’s New Year address
  3. The General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea holds a meeting in front of statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mansudae Art Studio to support the New Year address
  4. The Union of Agricultural Working People of Korea holds a meeting at the Three-Revolution Exhibition Hall to support the New Year address
  5. Songyo Knitwear Plant workers are trying to implement and support the New Year address
  6. A Korean People’s Army unit is supporting farming in socialist rural areas
  7. The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League in Pyongyang sends manure to farms in the city
  8. The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League is supporting farming projects in rural areas
  9. The Taesongsan Sports Team is training harder in the new year
  10. A Chinese government trade and economic delegation is in North Korea
  11. Eric Schmidt’s delegation visits the Grand People’s Study House
  12. The Nigerian Committee for Study of the Juche Idea congratulates the DPRK on its satellite launch
  13. China opens the world’s longest high-speed rail line
  14. A measles epidemic in Pakistan has killed 154 people
  15. Landslides in Colombia kill five people

And here’s the clip of the visit:

The visit wasn’t reported on North Korean radio’s main morning news bulletins, according to BBC Monitoring reports.

Here’s a gallery of images from January 8:

And here’s January 9th. The visit included a trip to the book delivery counter, where an assistant was able to speedily retrieve books from a back storeroom via a conveyer belt. If it was anything like my trip there in 2002, Schmidt was probably shown a hopelessly out of date book about computer programming.

1 Comment on "Ranking Eric Schmidt’s Pyongyang trip"

  1. ….Once again proving that white people are too boring to talk about.

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