Radio
RSF reports on media in North Korea
Oct 11th
Reporters Without Borders has published a detailed report on the North Korean media landscape. The report is the result of of a fact-finding trip to Seoul in July by an RSF staffer and concludes that North Korea is no longer as sealed off from the outside world as it used to be.
Shortwave radio broadcasts from foreign stations, CDs and DVDs of South Korean TV broadcasts, data smuggled over the Chinese border and USB keys dropped by balloon are all creating cracks in the wall of isolation that has surrounded North Korea for decades, said the report.
It also called on the South Korean More >
Pyongyang is not happy about foreign radio broadcasts
Oct 6th
North Korea’s state-run news agency has hit out against propaganda radio broadcasts targeted at the country.
(This post has been updated. See below)
In a commentary published on Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency criticized the broadcasts for using “the same frequency band as used by the TV broadcasting in the DPRK and conducting its anti-DPRK radio propaganda with the same radio frequency band as used in the DPRK.”
North Korea is targeted by a handful of overseas radio stations that largely transmit on shortwave frequencies to reach listeners in the country. Some of the stations, including South Korea’s KBS and Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea, More >
Tuning the FM dial in Pyongyang
Sep 16th
Switch on an FM radio in Pyongyang and there isn’t much to listen to, according to a scan of the FM band by a recent visitor to the country.
Mark Fahey found just two radio stations available, although one was repeated on multiple frequencies.
Pyongyang FM Broadcasting (Pyongyang FM Pangsong) was broadcasting on 105.2 MHz. Mark said the station, “opened each morning with a few minutes of test tone, an interval signal and that the 6AM time signal.”
Here’s a recording Mark provided of the start of broadcasts on August 16. You can hear the station ID as “Pyongyang FM Pangsong imnida” (This More >
Kujang shortwave transmitter site
Apr 29th
If you’ve ever listened to The Voice of Korea on shortwave, you’ve probably heard broadcasts from this transmitter site. Kujang is one of the largest transmitter locations in the DPRK with, according to official records, 5 shortwave transmitters each capable of delivering a 200kW signal. That’s powerful enough to reach most corners of the world, given a clear frequency and good conditions.
North Korea doesn’t publish detailed locations of its transmitter sites, but a bit of digging around on Google Earth and cross-referencing with Curtis Melvin’s North Korea Uncovered Google Earth file and the World Radio TV Handbook led me to this More >
Voice of Korea website due Friday
Apr 14th
North Korea’s international broadcasting service, The Voice of Korea, will launch a website on Friday, according to a domestic radio report transcribed by BBC Monitoring. (The site has launched a day early. See below for update.)
The site is due to open on Friday, which is Kim Il Sung’s birthday, and will be available at http://www.vok.rep.kp .
The report didn’t detail what the website would carry, but judging from comments and emails I receive concerning the frequency schedule, daily recordings of the station’s programming would be appreciated by its listeners. The shortwave signal is sometimes difficult to hear.
Voice of Korea broadcasts in Arabic, More >
Voice of Korea English A11 schedule
Apr 10th
Voice of Korea, the DPRK’s international shortwave broadcasting service, is on the air everyday in several languages. The English language broadcasts appear to be refreshed during the day (local time) with each programming cycle beginning with the evening broadcast and then getting repeated overnight.
The news output is similar to the English-language stories from KCNA, but there is minor editing. It’s generally a day behind the news being put out on the domestic service in Korean.
Each program is about 55 minutes long.
The English-language broadcast schedule for summer 2011 (period A11) effective March 27 to October 30 is:
0100 GMT (10am local) to More >
FNK Radio attracts North Korean Internet audience
Jan 18th
Free North Korea Radio, one of the handful of independent broadcasters targeting North Korea, attracted a direct connection to its website from inside the DPRK on Wednesday morning.
The site said an incoming connection from North Korea was recorded between 9:30am and 10am on Wednesday morning. It included the following screenshot (see below) from its site showing a connection from what appears to be within the North Korean IP address range that’s recently been activated by Star JV.
Star’s IP addresses run from 175.45.176.0 to 175.45.179.255.
Free North Korea Radio, based in Seoul and run by defectors from the north, broadcasts programming critical of More >
Rodong Sinmun on IT psychological warfare
Dec 16th
Rodong Sinmun, the DPRK’s national daily newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, attacked the U.S. on Tuesday for “waging a vicious psychological warfare on the basis of modern science and technology.”
The article, an English synopsis of which was reported by KCNA, said the U.S. is using it to attack “anti-imperialist independent countries.”
It’s the first time in a while that psychological warfare has come up on KCNA, but the article is frustratingly lacking in specifics of the specific actions it is complaining about.
U.S. intelligence gathering bodies and their affiliated institutions are now busy widely using modern scientific and technological means More >
High-quality recordings of DPRK radio
Dec 14th
Mark Fahey in Australia wrote to let me know about a project he’s working on that involves the capture of hours of North Korean radio via satellite. The broadcasts of the Korean Central Broadcasting Station domestic service via Thaicom are much higher quality than anything that’s generally available online, including my recordings from shortwave. Here’s what he says:
I am currently capturing hundreds of hours of TV & radio programming from North Korea as part of an academic project I am involved in. Yesterday I spent time digitally capturing the central domestic radio service as broadcast on 819kHz in Pyongyang. I thought More >
Voice of Korea on Yeonpyeong shelling
Nov 24th
The Voice of Korea, the DPRK’s international shortwave radio service, broadcast on Nov. 24 its first report in English on the shelling of Yeonpyeong island.
The shelling occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 23 and the radio report comes 24 hours after a similar report was carried in English on the Korea Central News Agency wire.
The lateness of the report highlights the Voice of Korea’s rigid daily programming, which changes only once per day.
The report is very similar to the KCNA bulletin, although there are differences. It’s either been rewritten for radio delivery or been translated from the original Korean by More >
