Korean Central News Agency

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Logo from KCNA
Korean alphabet : 조선 중앙 통신사
Hanja : 朝鮮 中央 通信 社
Revised Romanization : Joseon jungang tongsinsa
McCune-Reischauer : Chosŏn chungang t'ongsinsa

The Central Korean News Agency ( English Korean Central News Agency ), established on December 5, 1946 is the central state news agency of North Korea . Like all North Korean media, KCNA is state-censored and presents North Korea and its government exclusively for propaganda purposes. KCNA has been based in Pyongyang since it was founded .

The KCNA broadcasts news from and about North Korea as well as official announcements from the Korean government and the Labor Party . Often, comments or editorials from the party newspaper Rodong Sinmun are published, which are practically the same as official statements.

In terms of content, the KCNA focuses on party news and foreign policy reports, in particular

  • the activities of the respective general secretary and chairman of the party, currently Kim Jong-un
  • Summary of articles from leading newspapers in North Korea
  • Anniversaries of events in party history and in the life of their leaders Kim Il-sung , Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un
  • Activities of foreign organizations close to the Korean Workers' Party, such as visiting North Korea and publishing Kim Jong-il's or Kim Il-sung's works abroad
  • Diplomatic contacts between North Korea and other countries, for example ministerial meetings, handover of flower baskets and letters of congratulations
  • Foreign policy events that directly affect North Korea. These are, for example, reports relating to the situation in the rapprochement process between North and South Korea and the threat from the United States and Japan from a North Korean perspective .

Internet

Since October 2010, the KCNA has been disseminating its reports in five languages ​​via a website that uses the North Korean top-level domain and whose servers are to be operated in North Korea. The site also includes brief summaries of articles from the North Korean press. Further categories on politics, economy and culture are still being developed. An archive search has also been possible for some time.

Another website that was hosted in Japan until July 2015 contained an archive of past reports from the KCNA. This archive did not contain any images or graphics and was temporarily available in three languages:

  • Korean : Usually six messages a day. The archive contains articles as of January 1, 1998
  • English : Usually ten to twelve messages a day. The archive contains articles as of December 2, 1996
  • Spanish : Since the end of 2002, two to four reports per day have usually been archived in the English language archive in Spanish.

The English reports were usually published daily, with the exception of Sundays.

Cooperation with Russian state media

On October 8, 2019, the KCNA and TASS signed a cooperation agreement to jointly combat “ fake news ”. The agreement was made during a visit to Pyongyang by employees of Russian state media, including Pervy Kanal . The agreement also provides that the two state agencies exchange material and “support journalists”. An older agreement between the Russian and North Korean state media has existed since 2005. What TASS and KCNA understand by “fake news” was not defined in the agreement. The propaganda coverage of the North Korean agency suggests that almost every message that deviates from the point of view of the North Korean regime is interpreted as "fake news". The Director-General of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Press and Information Department praised the Russian media for its “fair and objective” description of the “principled positions” of the North Korean leadership.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ North Korea: Journalism in the Service of a Totalitarian Dictatorship ( Memento of July 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Reporters Without Borders, October 22, 2004
  2. ^ North Korea among the Worst Media on Earth , Daily NK , October 21, 2009
  3. ↑ KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY ( Memento of April 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ North Korea broadcasts news in English and Spanish ( memento of September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), AFP , October 14, 2010
  5. ↑ Mirroring the archive on archive.org. Last entry: July 2nd, 2015 . Retrieved May 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Kcna.co.jp Whois. Retrieved May 12, 2019 .
  7. ↑ 과거 보도 ( Memento from June 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ February 2007 ( Memento from February 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ a b North Korea's KCNA, Russian TASS news agency hope to fight '' fake news' . In: BBC Monitoring , October 9, 2019.
  10. ↑ a b Russian and North Korean state media join forces to fight 'fake news' . In: The Telegraph , October 9, 2019.
  11. ↑ Russian, North Korean State Media Team Up to Fight '' Fake News' . In: The Moscow Times , October 9, 2019.