Media
AP’s Guttenfelder named Time’s top Instagram photographer
Dec 19th
Time Magazine has named David Guttenfelder its top Instagram photographer of the year for his on-going series of photos that chronicle life in North Korea.
Guttenfelder, chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, has made numerous journeys to the DPRK over the past several years and began directly chronicling the country through Instagram earlier this year when North Korean opened up its cellphone network to foreigners.
One of the most attractive aspects of the pictures, especially from the point of view of those who follow North Korea closely, is that Guttenfelder’s photographs capture little moments of life not often seen. There’s the announcer More >
Voice of Korea on Jang Song Thaek
Dec 16th
North Korea’s external broadcasting service, the Voice of Korea, ran three reports last week on the arrest and subsequent trial and execution of Jang Song Thaek.
The reports, in English, are reproduced below.
The first report ran on December 9 and covered the meeting of the political bureau of the central committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea, at which Jang was accused of a series of crimes against the state and led away by soldiers.
The political bureau of the party center committee convened the enlarged meeting and discussed the issue about the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factionalist acts of Jang Song Thaek. At More >
North Korean TV on execution of Jang Song Thaek
Dec 14th
Korean Central Television broadcast a 17-minute report on the special military tribunal of the DPRK Ministry of State Security. The trial concluded by sentencing Jang to death.
Here’s the clip:
North Korean media announces execution of Jang
Dec 13th
High-level purges in North Korea have been typically quiet affairs in the past. Rumors would circulate that someone had been removed from office, state media would be analyzed for mentions of the person’s name and confirmation would usually only come months or years later when they either reemerged or someone else appeared in a position they used to fill.
Page 2 of the Rodong Sinmun for December 13, 2013
So the announcement through state media that Jang Song Thaek had been executed is quite stunning in its openness.
The Korean Central News Agency carried the news early on Friday, December 13, while the Rodong More >
Full text of KCNA announcement on execution of Jang
Dec 13th
The Korean Central News Agency issued the following on December 13, 2013. The English version of the article was issued in two takes. The first take runs about half the length of the full story until the “(more)” below. The story was then updated with the second half.
So when the story originally ran, only the headline referred to Jang’s execution. Details and the speed at which it was performed did not appear until the update, which runs to some 2,749 words.
Here it is in full:
Traitor Jang Song Thaek Executed
Pyongyang, December 13 (KCNA) — Upon hearing the report on the enlarged More >
KCNA deleted, then restored old reports on Jang
Dec 11th
News reports that centered on Jang Song Thaek were deleted from the Korean Central News Agency’s website in the hours before state media announced his removal from power on Monday.
The reports vanished from the Korean-language portion of the site at around 5am Korean time on Monday (8pm GMT Sunday), said Frank Feinstein, a New Zealand-based researcher who runs the KCNA Watch service.
He said only the reports in which Jang was a central character were removed. Others that mentioned him in passing remained on the KCNA website. Feinstein was using his own index of KCNA articles as a reference to the original URLs.
“This More >
North Korean media coverage of Jang’s departure
Dec 10th
North Korea’s state media revealed in stunning detail on Monday the alleged infractions of Jang Song Thaek and showed still images of his being led from a Worker’s Party of Korea meeting by soldiers.
The reports, which are unprecedented for North Korea, came just less than a week after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported to lawmakers in Seoul that he had been removed from power.
Here’s how state TV made the announcement.
Still images of Jang being led away are shown around the 8:40 mark.
And here’s the same story in English, as broadcast on Voice of Korea. The news begins at the More >
WRN ending Voice of Korea on-demand audio
Dec 5th
High-quality audio streams from the Voice of Korea, North Korea’s international broadcaster, will soon be gone from the web.
The recordings, which are available in five languages, have been offered by London-based World Radio Network since July this year, but the company is shutting down its on-demand service on December 15.
The move is part of an effort by WRN to refocus its efforts on its core service aimed at radio stations. WRN carries programming from major international broadcasters such as Deutsche Welle, KBS World Radio, Radio Prague and Radio New Zealand and redistributes them to AM and FM stations around the world. The online service More >
South Korean Defense Ministry’s radio station off air
Nov 30th
A radio transmitting station in Seoul. File photo.
MND Radio, a shortwave radio station run by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, appears to have left the air.
The station was last heard broadcasting on October 31st. Since then, it hasn’t been detected by radio monitors in East Asia or further afield.
MND Radio first appeared in late 2011 and broadcast a handful a hour-long programs several times a day.
The station name, the organization behind it or any other details were ever announced on air, but details leaked through documents submitted to an international shortwave broadcasting coordination body.
Aside from the obvious similarity between More >
Is this a South Korean propaganda radio station?
Nov 25th
Driving up South Korea’s “freedom highway” north of Seoul, just after the turn off for the National Defense University, observant travelers will notice a collection of transmitter masts off to the right of the highway.
At first glance, the site looks like it might belong to a major broadcaster like KBS, but the truth appears to be much more interesting.
Seeing inside the site is impossible from the highway, but a neighboring hill provides a good outlook, as shown below.
The site contains 16 transmitter masts, all but one of which are contained in a large field. A single mast sits in the middle More >
