-
·
North Korea attacks US funding of anti-censorship projects
North Korea’s state-run news agency issued a sharp criticism over the weekend of U.S. funding of technology projects that attack censorship. The commentary, published on Saturday, points to dissatisfaction among the North Korean elite with U.S. funding of projects that enable the free flow of information and bypass Internet censorship. It comes as U.S. State Dept.’s Bureau of Democracy,…
-
·
Pyongyang building collapse underlines North Korea’s news blockade
The revelation by North Korean state media on Sunday that Pyongyang suffered a major construction accident underlines how strong the regime’s grip on information flow remains, despite cracks appearing in recent years. The accident occurred on Tuesday, according to the domestic media reports, but the world didn’t hear anything about the incident until those first…
-
·
IJuche app banned in South Korea
A recently-launched iPhone app that delivers articles from the Korean Central News Agency to iPhones and iPads has been banned in South Korea. The app, iJuche, was developed and published in late 2013 and was highlighted on NorthKoreaTech earlier this week. That publicity was apparently enough to get it blocked. “I just got a call…
-
·
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…
-
·
“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…
-
·
North Korean media announces execution of Jang
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…
-
·
Full text of KCNA announcement on execution of Jang
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…
-
·
KCNA deleted, then restored old reports on Jang
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…
-
·
KCNA web traffic uncovered
A Washington, D.C.-based journalist and blogger has managed to obtain details on web traffic to the Korean Central News Agency’s website thanks to poor security on a previous version of the site. Writing on his blog, Dino Beslagic said he was able to access the site traffic data through a hidden interface page on the…
-
·
KCNA adds higher resolution images
Regular visitors to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) might have noticed something different about the site in the last few days. The North Korean state-run news agency has begun publishing higher resolution photographers alongside articles. The change was first noted by Frank Feinstein, the New Zealand-based researcher who runs the KCNA Watch service. The…
