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App lets you keep up with KCNA on iPhone, iPad
If you use an Apple iPhone or iPad, there’s a new app that lets you stay current with news from the Korean Central News Agency. IJuche is the product of work by Peter Curtis, who says he became fascinated with the DPRK after reading Andrew Holloway’s “A Year in Pyongyang.” “When I decided that I…
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Kim Jong Un’s new year address
For the second year in a row, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared on state TV and radio on January 1 to deliver a new year address to his nation. The direct address was something of a surprise when it happened last year as Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, was rarely heard speaking on…
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Another push for BBC Korea
There’s a new push behind efforts to get the BBC World Service to launch a Korean-language service for North Korea. A group called The European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea (EAHRNK) has published a report making a case for such a service and just launched an online petition. In its report, EAHRNK argues that North Korean…
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Report: South Korean arrested for aiding North’s spy bureau
A South Korean businessman has been arrested by local authorities on suspicion of passing classified information and video and audio system technology to North Korea, Yonhap reported on Saturday. The report said the suspect, identified only as a 54-year-old man called “Kang,” worked with agents of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau to pass the information.…
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“Mass intimidation” from DPRK media on Jang’s execution
North Korean state media’s coverage of the arrest, trial and subsequent execution of Jang Song Thaek was “tantamount to mass intimidation,” Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday. “Although only to be expected from one of the world’s worst dictatorships, such manipulation of news and information is disturbing,” the Paris-based group said in a statement. “The extensive…
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AP’s Guttenfelder named Time’s top Instagram photographer
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…
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Voice of Korea on Jang Song Thaek
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…
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Orascom has $422 million in cash in North Korea
Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT), the Egyptian company that owns a 75 percent stake in North Korea’s on 3G cellular network operator, has apparently been doing very well in the North Korean market. A recent audit report by Deloitte says the company’s assets in North Korea stand at US2 million, of which 2 million…
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UN, US State Dept. react to execution of Jang Song Thaek
The United Nations Human Rights agency said it is following with concern news coming out of Pyongyang that Jang Song Thaek was executed this week. “This underscores the arbitrary nature of the system in the DPRK and the absence of transparency and due process which is required for the rule of law,” said Ravina Shamdasani, a…
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North Korean TV on execution of Jang Song Thaek
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:
