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DPRK radio transmitters a national secret
When North Korea launched a modernization of its broadcasting network in 2011, the Chinese company chosen to supply new TV and radio transmitters to the country faced a problem. The location of broadcast towers in North Korea is so much of a state secret that engineers from the company weren’t permitted to travel to the DPRK…
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Voice of Korea still having problems staying on-air
Voice of Korea, the DPRK’s international shortwave radio broadcaster, is still having technical problems that result in entire broadcasts failing to make it on-air. The problems began just over a month ago when some Voice of Korea broadcasts failed to appear at their scheduled times. Now, a month later, the broadcaster is still failing to…
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DPRK radio disappears
Several of North Korea’s external radio services and its powerful jamming operation that blocks foreign broadcasts are having trouble staying on the air. Voice of Korea, the country’s international radio outlet, was missing from several of its scheduled broadcasts on Thursday, according to monitoring from sites in South Korea, Japan and the U.S. Two days…
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DPRK again at bottom of press freedom ranking
North Korea has again been ranked the second-worst country in the world for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. The Paris-based organization has consistently ranked the DPRK at the bottom of the world in terms of press freedom for the last decade. “It is no surprise that the same trio of countries, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea, absolute dictatorships that…
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Voice of Korea on Kim’s funeral
From my own monitoring, here are a couple of reports from Voice of Korea, North Korea’s shortwave radio service, on the event surrounding the funeral of Kim Jong Il. December 29 broadcast (covering the events of the previous day) Voice of Korea reports on the funeral procession of Kim Jong Il. [audio:https://www.nktechlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/111229-vok-kim-funeral.mp3|titles=Voice of Korea, December 29,…
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Voice of Korea announces death of Kim Jong Il
The Voice of Korea, North Korea’s international radio service, made its first broadcast in English after the announcement of the death of Kim Jong Il. The broadcast was dominated by a news bulletin that attempted to carry some of the emotion being seen and heard on domestic media, but the announcer didn’t reach tears. The…
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Kim Jong Il’s death – monitoring North Korean TV and radio
The news of Kim Jong Il’s death has all eyes focused on the Asian nation. Unlike many other countries, there’s only a handful of official news outlets and getting direct access can be difficult. North Korean TV (KCTV) can be watched live through the Thaicom 5 satellite throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa and some…
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Voice of Korea B11 schedule
North Korea’s international shortwave broadcaster, the Voice of Korea, will use the following schedule for English language broadcasts from October 31, 2011, until late March 2012. The programs appear to be refreshed during the local Korean day with each programming cycle beginning with the 1000 GMT broadcast. The news output, which has not been observed to…
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B11 schedule for Japan’s broadcasts to North Korea
The two Japanese broadcasts that target North Korea, Shiokaze and Furusato no kaze, are updating their broadcast schedules to the winter (B11) period that runs from October 30, 2011 to March 25, 2012. Shortwave radio remains a vitally important way to reach into North Korea because of the total lack of international communications offered to…
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RSF reports on media in North Korea
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…
